FITCHBURG — For 123 years and 137 meetings, Fitchburg vs. Leominster — or Leominster vs. Fitchburg, if you’re reading this on the other side of Twin City Mall — has always been a battle of attrition. No matter the win-loss record, no matter the style of play, no matter the weather, the two sides have battled from the Driving Park to the Trotter’s Park, from the banks of the North Nashua — the corner of Circle and Broad — to the winding corners of Priest Street, giving their all for their schools, their cities, their neighborhoods.
That is what will happen with the two venerable institutions renew acquaintances in the Great Granddaddy of Thanksgiving football — the 138th meeting — Thursday morning at historic Crocker Field.
Kickoff is slated for 10 a.m. WPKZ Radio (105.3 FM, AM 1280, wpkz.net) will call the game live, with Todd Robbins, Kate Robbins and Bill Thomas handling the action, with a simulcast on Leominster Access TV. In addition, Fitchburg Access TV will have Dave Clark, Mike Flynn and John Gugarty handling the call.
Fitchburg enters the game at 7-3 following its loss in the Central Mass. Division 4 title game to Sturbridge’s Tantasqua Regional, while Leominster is 4-6.
The Blue Devils had to go through a transformation of sorts given two key injuries with its offense, but have — like they have in the last few seasons — come on in the last month, making them a difficult task to handle come Thursday.
In truth, both sides are rather difficult entities to contain. In the last four weeks of the season, LHS has poured the offense forth on three occasions. Before the end of October, the Devil offense struggled as it re-aligned.
So, too, did its defense. But outside of a second-half blip against St. John’s on Oct. 25, Leominster’s defense has been its lifeblood over the second half of the season.
Fitchburg, too, has been a side that can score when it wants, and when it scores, it comes in bunches of TDs. And when you have a kicker like Justin Comesana, the Red Raiders can score with a long field goal, too. If you’re going to stop the Red Raiders, you have to stop them well outside of field goal range to thoroughly beat them.
And the Raider defense, too, has come up aces: FHS has posted three shutouts this season.
In short, don’t expect a ton of points this Thursday, given the way both teams have executed on defense.
“Fitchburg has a fantastic defense,” first-year Leominster coach Devin Gates said. “And that’s where they’re earned where they’re at. (Fitchburg head coach Tom) DiGeronimo has done a great job for the last couple of years building the program to the point that it’s at right now. And they still have a lot to prove, too. Every year is different year, especially in the rivalry, you don’t look back at previous scores. Our guys are going to have to weather that storm. And with the way they play on defense and how they fly to the ball, it certainly poses a challenge for us, and we’re going to have to try to figure out a way to overcome it.”
“Obviously, (Leominster is) playing much better, but people don’t realize they play a very challenging schedule. They’re a bigger school than us so we’re going to have to play our best and contain the big plays and just get better than we played last week,” DiGeronimo said of the Blue Devils. “I think that’s important, that we improve on how we play because we made a lot of mistakes (against Tantasqua) last week and we got to correct those mistakes. Our biggest focus when we get ready for a game is what we need to do first, that’s our biggest opponent going into this, and then after we figured out what we need to get better at, then we really focused on who we’re playing.”
Both coaches also noted the offensive playmakers of the other side.
“I think Anthony Oquendo is a stellar back,” Gates said, “and I think Monty Graham is getting better every week, and he’s kind of come into his own, too. And I think they definitely pose some problems, they have some big guys up front, they run the power game really well, so we’re really going to have to play physical to be in this football game.”
Added DiGeronimo: “(Leominster QB Caeden Constant) has been throwing the ball very well and he’s dangerous as a runner. So he’s become a more complete quarterback as the year has gone on, so you got to really pay a lot of attention to him. They’ve got a good stable of running backs and athletes all over the field, so we’ve got to play sound, physical football and I expect our kids to come out and play hard.”
Fitchburg is looking to close out the season on a high note, and doing so at home is key: of the five games they’ve played at the corner of Circle and Broad this fall, they’ve only lost one.
“Every time you play at home it’s important,” DiGeronimo said, “and we’ve actually played much better at home. I think the way we finished the season, we played much better at home and it’s a great way for our seniors to go out is playing at Crocker Field for their last football game.”
Leominster is a team that has come on as of late, and Gates has raved about his team’s performances.
“I’m so excited and proud of what they’ve done, especially the last month, but the way that they haven’t hung their head at all, they haven’t felt sorry for themselves, they’ve come back to work every week, so I’m really excited for them to finish this season out on a positive note,” he said. “We practice like our backs against the wall all the time. So these guys are used to knowing that one yard can make a difference. We put them against the goal line, we practice like that so they know one yard is a big deal so that I think that’s where that tenacity is coming from and they’re playing with a lot to prove.”
