DANVERS — Talk about a final score that doesn’t even begin to tell the full narrative of a story.
The history books will show that the 2026 Danvers High football team won its season opener Thursday on a balmy night at Deering Stadium, shutting out Concord-Carlisle 16-0.
The real story goes much deeper than that. The Falcons didn’t allow a single first down the entire evening, allowed just six yards rushing and 15 yards of total offense, and manhandled the Patriots up front on both sides of the ball. In fact, the Patriots never had a single snap inside DHS territory.
There’s more. Three different players — junior Zach Fultz (121 yards, TD), sophomore first-time varsity player Evan Kaciqi (114 yards, TD) and senior captain Jack Houston (106) all went over the century mark on the ground as the Blue-and-White rolled up 353 of their 382 total yards via their punishing ground game.
“It’s just the greatest feeling in the world, to have a game like that on opening night,” said senior right guard and defensive lineman Dylan Kinney, one of the Falcons’ six captains. “The offensive line stayed low, tight and physical — (right tackle) Grayson Haskell might’ve had eight pancakes — and our backs really took advantage. And defensively, we were all over them.”
The Falcons also conquered the clock, limiting Concord-Carlisle to less than 15 minutes of possession over the game’s 48 minutes. Both sides of the line were a huge reason for that.
“Sometimes it gets so congested with our tight (Double Wing) offense that you just have to hit someone. But thanks to our offensive line, it’s not like that,” senior fullback and linebacker Matt Nikiforov said. “They open things up nicely for me to get to where I need to go, make that last little cleanup block, and our backs are off from there.”
Kinney and Haskell were joined up from by left tackle Lucas McGloin, left guard Logan Travers and center Cole Mahler to punish the visitors in the trenches all night.
Houston, who was also a monster defensively from his outside linebacker spot (as was Hunter DeDominics at DE), stated afterwards that depth played a huge role in the victory on a warm night.
“We’ve placed a big emphasis on going 2-deep this year,” he said. “Coach Ibby (Bryan Ibbitson) really spends a lot of extra time repping with the 2’s so if one guy happens to go down, there’s no dropoff.”
Fultz, who led the team in rushing with 1,120 yards a year ago, did all his damage in 14 first-half carries. Following an 11-yard run by Houston on the first play of the second half, Fultz took it to the end zone from 23 yards on the next play, bouncing outside to the left and outrunning the Patriots’ secondary.
Following a chip shot field goal by senior captain Colby Medeiros late in the third quarter that made it 10-0, Danvers found the end zone again in the fourth quarter when Kaciqi pounded it in from a yard out on fourth down.
“It was very exciting, and the adrenaline kept me going,” said Kaciqi. “Matt Nikiforov did a great job as a lead blocker; I just saw the gaps and took them.”
“It was great watching Evan do what he did for us,” added Fultz. “Honestly I watch him so I can make myself better, see the moves that he uses and try to (incorporate) those into my game.”
By all accounts, this should’ve been the blowout that the stats make it out to be. It probably would’ve been if Danvers didn’t have a pass intercepted on the goal line, fumbled inside the Concord-Carlisle 15 on another drive, or came up short inside the 15 on another drive.
“We certainly want to clean some things up moving forward,” said head coach Ryan Nolan, “but for starters, I’m really proud of the way the boys played on both sides of the football.”
Danvers hits the road next Friday night when it takes on Melrose.
Danvers 16, Concord-Carlisle 0
at Deering Stadium, Danvers Concord-Carlisle 0 0 0 0 0
Danvers 0 7 3 6 16
Scoring summary
D — Zach Fultz 23 run (Colby Medeiros kick)
D — Medeiros 19 field goal
D — Evan Kaciqi 1 run (kick blocked)
Individual stats
RUSHING: Concord-Carlisle — Aiden Bayes 3-5, John Ryan 1-4, Henry Jackson 1-(-1), Thomas Bury 11-(-2); Danvers — Zach Fultz 14-121, Evan Kaciqi 21-114, Jack Houston 16-106, Nate Wise 3-13, Matt Nikiforov 1-1, Ethan Schweitzer 1-(-2).
PASSING: Concord-Carlisle — Ryan Duffy 2-5-9-0-0; Danvers — Wise 2-4-29-0-1.
RECEIVING: Concord-Carlisle — Alex Fivek 2-9; Danvers — Tim Nikiforov 1-21, Matt Nikiforov 1-8.
Contact Phil Stacey
@PhilStacey_SN