Medfield Football Faces 'Great Challenge' in Opener

It’s Game Day for the football team as the Warriors open the season against Oliver Ames of Easton tonight on the MHS turf at 7 p.m.

“OA is a strong, run-heavy team that will spread the field and work to get backs in open spaces out of the backfield,” said Medfield head coach Erik Ormberg. “They have a north-south runner, who is elusive, but not afraid of contact.”

, said the key for a Medfield victory will be sustaining long drives offensively and getting strong play out of its special teams unit, which Ormberg has focused on early in practices.

“What we need to do to win is get off the field on third down and control the clock offensively,” Ormberg said. “We hope our special teams will make a play or two to impact the game in our favor.”

OA brings a defense that is “big up front and fundamentally sound,” according to Ormberg.

“Defensively, we will most likely see them in a 44 alignment shifting occasionally to a 62 front,” said Ormberg. “This is a great challenge for us to play a team from the .”

Medfield returns to the field after a 5-6 campaign in 2010 and will rely on a strong senior class this season.

“This senior class is a special senior class because when they were sophomores, there were only three seniors so these kids were thrust into varsity roles,” said Ormberg. “They were basically freshmen plus two months and like seven of them played. They went through a very challenging period and last year, we lost to Westwood the last play of the game, lost a one possession game on Thanksgiving, it could have been a 7-4 [season].”

Ormberg said the Warriors are also equipped with a strong junior class that he hopes will compliment the seniors’ experience on the field this season.

“The experience that these [seniors] have, a lot of them have 22 varsity games of experience under their belts going into their senior year, you don’t always get that,” Ormberg said. “The junior class behind them … they’re football kids.”

Medfield Players to Watch:

• Ife Adebayo (Captain)
• Sam Tawa
• Tim Bernard
• Alex Opiela (Captain)
• Joe Shebertes

Medfield’s Key Losses from 2010:

• Garrett Read
• Justin Williams
• Colton Lavin
• Christian Beath
• Dan Fitzgerald

Kick-off is at 7 p.m. on the Medfield High School turf. Tonight is also Medfield Warriors' Football Family Night. Bring the family to cheer on the football team at tonight’s game. To honor the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, families are encouraged to show their Patriotism by wearing Red, White, and/or Blue to this event. Be sure to get to the field early for pre-game activities, which include:

• Patriotic prizes for the first 100 fans.
• Special performance by the Medfield High School Band.
• Presentation of the colors by the Medfield scouts.

The Medfield High School football team is back under the lights. 

Be sure to watch as we broke down the teams in the Large and Small Divisions of the TVL. You can follow Tri-Valley League football all season long on Medfield Patch, Westwood Patch,Holliston Patch, Hopkinton Patch, Dover-Sherborn Patch and Norton Patch.