Sports

Medfield Football Drops League Opener to Holliston, 42-14

Holliston's 20-point second quarter proved to be too much for Medfield in the Tri-Valley League Large Division opener Friday.

For 16 minutes, the  football team went toe-to-toe with the defending Division 3A Super Bowl Champions, holding Holliston scoreless. 

But a long run by Holliston's Jake Frechette set up an 11-yard pass from quarterback Dan Barone to Brody Ciarcello with 5:51 remaining in the second quarter to put the Panthers on the board. The extra-point made it 7-0 and the rout was on as Holliston built a 20-0 lead at halftime enroute to a 42-14 victory over the Warriors in both teams' Tri-Valley League Large Division openers. 

“We told them that our identity the rest of the year was going to be based on us trying to physically move people off the line of scrimmage and they did that,” said Medfield head coach Erik Ormberg. “We absolutely did it for about the first quarter and a half and I’m very proud of the guys and their effort.”

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After taking a 7-0 lead midway through the second quarter, Barone connected with Frechette on a long touchdown pass and after the extra point was good, it was 14-0 Panthers with 3:46 to play in the half. Medfield fumbled the ensuing kick-off and Holliston recovered at the Warriors' 30-yard line. A rushing touchdown from Barone increased Holliston's lead to 20-0. The Panthers' two-point conversion failed. 

Medfield drove late in the second quarter, advancing to Holliston's 32-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. Medfield sacked Barone for the last play of the half and went to the locker room down 20-0. 

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“We gave up a big play and Holliston is a really good team,” Ormberg said. “They’re well-coached, they got some tremendous athletes over there and after that they kind of took advantage in the second half of those opportunities. They know how to win over there. They’re the defending champs. We’re still working to get there.”

Medfield started with the ball in the second half and showed a new-look offense with quarterback Alex Opiela working out of the shotgun. Opiela found running room out of the gun but the Warriors' drive stalled and they were forced to punt. 

“The plan going in was we didn’t want really want to show that formation [shotgun] until after halftime so Holliston wouldn’t have the halftime to adjust,” Ormberg said. “We felt if we were in a close game at halftime we wouldn’t need to use it. It was 20-0 at halftime.”

Holliston drove 87 yards on its first series of the third quarter and capped it off with a 13-yard touchdown run by Frechette. Barone ran in the two-point conversion to extend the Panthers' lead to 28-0. Barone later in the quarter hit Ciarcello for a 40-yard touchdown strike and after the extra point, the score was 35-0. 

Medfield put together its first scoring drive late in the third quarter that carried over to the fourth as Opiela continued to find success running the ball out of the shotgun formation. The drive was capped by a 28-yard touchdown run by Sam Tawa. The extra point made it 35-7.

“Alex [Opiela] is giving absolutely everything he can and the offensive line did a fantastic job trying to protect him on some of those runs,” Ormberg said. “Sam [Tawa’s] emptying his bucket too. Those guys are really trying to forge an identity for the offense and I think down the road this is the biggest challenge, this game. This is a very talented Holliston team and we hope that this is going to set a positive tone for the remaining seven games we have.”

Holliston answered right back with a 35-yard pass play from Barone to set up a Max Athy touchdown run. The extra point gave the Panthers a 42-7 lead with 6:25 remaining. 

The Warriors found pay dirt on their next possession as Opiela connected with receiver Tim Bernard on a long touchdown pass. The extra point brought the game to its eventual final score at 42-14. 

While the scoreboard showed a one-sided contest, Ormberg said the result is nothing to get down about and the 28-point loss only shows there’s still work to be done.

“We don’t want them to hang their heads,” Ormberg said of his team. “That’s a really good football team and we’ve played a couple of teams ranked in the top 25 in the state and we hope there’s going to be some payoff. We’re only 0-1 in the league and we still have three league games to go.”

At 1-3 this season and 0-1 in the league, Ormberg believes his team is close to playing with the identity the program is striving to achieve.

“We know they have it in them,” Ormberg said. “The team we want to be and the identity that we have appeared in the first quarter and a half. We just have to learn to respond to adversity a little bit better. We have to be able to sustain over four quarters. We’ve got to be able to continue to forge an identity of moving the line of scrimmage and when we get into our other formations being able to execute consistently with people other than Sam [Tawa] and Alex [Opiela].

Medfield’s next opportunity to play with the identity it is after will come Thursday night against TVL Large foe Westwood at the MHS turf at 7 p.m.

“It’s a short week,” Ormberg said. “We’ll get the guys in [Saturday] and try and fix some of the things and we’ll pick up where we were this week. We are starting to realize who we are and what we can accomplish offensively and defensively. We did a great job on both sides of the ball to start; we just have to be able to do it over four quarters.”


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