A key member of North Andover High’s unbeaten Super Bowl championship team in 1994, Harold Trombly, remembers exactly what the Knights-Masconomet Thanksgiving Day rivalry meant.
“It was a different time back then. Masco was huge on Thanksgiving,” said Trombly, a starter on that team that included Knight legends like John Routhier and Sam Velishka.
“I actually liked it better back then. Masco felt like more of a fight for everyone. As kids, we took it very seriously, the whole season was pointed toward that one game.”
Well, coaches Matt Cerullo of North Andover and Pat Sheehan at Masco have taken steps to rekindle that energy – not on the holiday (NA will continue to play MVC archrival Andover) but on Sept. 19, a non-leaguer with high stakes playoff implications and MIAA power points hanging in the balance.
Trombly’s son, North Andover High linebacker Kory Trombly, is as fired up as dad is about the reunion of the rivalry.
“He talks about it all the time, playing against them over at the old Hayes Stadium at the middle school, and I get the feeling that playing them will be just as intense as the game with Andover for sure,” said Kory. “It’s two good teams that will be out there competing to get better.”
North Andover and Masco were the prime time contenders perennially in the Cape Ann League for decades. It fueled some spirited battles in a Turkey Day series that began in 1975 and percolated for decades.
Overall, North Andover owned a 30-18-1 advantage vs. Masco, 25-14-1 on Thanksgiving when the teams parted ways in 2014.
Since then, the teams met one other time, an MIAA “non-playoff” early November matchup in 2015 won by the Knights.
Ten years later, the coaches decided it was time.
Sheehan is 100 percent in on reviving the rivalry with North Andover.
“It was an easy sell,” said Sheehan, who has energized the program at Masco, taking over last fall and leading the Chieftains to the Division 3 playoffs. “I’m a Cape Ann League guy who played there and coached there for years. Back in the day, so often this game decided championships.”
Sheehan first approached former Knights coach John Dubzinski about reviving the game and athletic directors Steve Nugent and John Daileanes hammered out the details for Sept. 19.
The hype train for the game has begun.
“We’ve dusted off the old trophy (the teams played for back in the day), and we’ve already printed shirts for the game. The kids are excited for it,” said Sheehan. “Friday night, Sept. 19, is going to be a pretty good night in North Andover. There’s going to be plenty of interest in it for sure.”