HAVERHILL – This past week, the weather played a big role in high school football teams practicing and preparing for their season openers.
Whittier Tech’s season was supposed to open on Friday but inclement weather forced to be pushed back to Saturday afternoon. Heading into the home contest, Wildcats’ head coach Kevin Bradley wasn’t too sure what to make out of it, knowing his team had just one practice all week to prepare.
That didn’t matter.
Although Whittier turned the ball over with a fumble on its first possession, the Wildcats dominated play from the opening whistle to the running clock throughout the entire half and came away with a convincing 36-8 non-league victory.
“I try to tell these kids that it was a rough week but it’s a sign of a good team when you see how they handled it with today’s performance,” said Bradley. “We had trained for two weeks (prior) to do their job and they did it today. It was a little shaky in the beginning and we had that fumble, but stuff like that is going to happen. We moved on from that and we got going.”
On the game’s opening drive, Whittier marched right down the field, going from its own 28 to the Wolves’ 8 yard line on eight straight running plays. But on second-and-two from the 8, Whittier fumbled and turned the ball over.
The Wolves followed with a three-and-out and went to punt on fourth down, but a bad snap pushed the ball back to the one inch line and allowed the Wildcats offense to come back onto the field. Quarterback George Gioldasis then ran in the next play for this first TD of the season. Nick Almanzar, who had a monster two-way game, ran in the conversion.
From there it was all Whittier. Anderson Pineda followed with a 7-yard TD run and then Almanzar scored on runs of 51 and 7 yards before Pineda added his second from 15 yards out.
Whittier ended the game with 211 total yards of offense with 193 coming on the ground. Almanzar had 101 rushing yards just in the first half. Pineda finished with 61. The team’s veteran offensive line consisting of mostly Ethan Masys, Will King, Cody Annaloro and Dan McGrath as well as tight ends Tom Knight and David Beltre all helped the team totally dominate in the trenches.
“Our offensive line is big – they are all big and physical and they all love to hit,” said Bradley. “We have some great older kids in there and today we were able to mix in about eight or nine kids total, including getting some younger kids some reps, to that was all great to see. That group is jelling and they take some much pride in what they do.”
Defensively, Whittier Tech had three interceptions with Almanzar and then two from Walt Powell.
The Wildcats will have another short week of practice as they will host Cathedral on Thursday night. Last year, Cathedral defeated Nashoba Tech in the first round of the Division 8 state tournament before losing to eventual state champions Hull in the quarterfinals.
You can follow Jamie Pote on Twitter at @JamiePote
Whittier Tech 36, Roxbury Prep 8
Roxbury Prep (0-1) 0 0 0 8 – 8
Whittier Tech (1-0) 14 15 7 0 – 36
WT: George Giodasis 1 run (Nick Almanzar rush)
WT: Anderson Pineda 7 run (rush failed)
WT: Almanzar 51 run (Walt Powell rush)
WT: Almanzar 7 run (Nate Brown kick)
WT: Pineda 15 run (Brown kick)
RP: Sonny McColgan 5 run (Devin Mulrain rush)
Passing: RP, Sonny McColgan 2-for-8, 16 yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs; WT, George Gioldasis 2-for-2, 18 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs.
Rushing: RP, Sonny McColgan 10-21; Jahvon Sanders 7-20; Jeremiah Lambert 2 – (3); Team 1 – (1-12); WT, Nick Almanzar 6-101; Anderson Pineda 6-61; Cody Annaloro 1-25; Julian Lumen 2-6; Richard DiChiccio 1-6; Julian Lumenario 1-5; Anthony Midolo 1-2; Nate Brown 2 – (-6); George Giodasis 6 – (-7).
Receiving: RP, Damion Barrett 1- 17; Elijah Ross 1- (-1); WT, Nick Almanzar 1-13; Joziah Castro 1-5