Division 4 football state semifinal: Nashoba outlasts Gloucester, punches ticket to Foxboro

WOBURN — The Nashoba Chieftains are a championship-caliber football team, and they’re also quick learners.

During the 15-minute halftime of its game against Gloucester Saturday night, the Chieftains made some adjustments that led to a dominant second half that fueled a 32–14 win over the Fishermen in a Division 4 state semifinal at Woburn High.

Nashoba improved to 10-1 and, after playing Clinton on Thanksgiving, will meet South champion Dighton-Rehoboth on Dec. 1 at Gillette Stadium in the Division 4 state championship game.

The Chieftains played at Gillette last year and lost to Melrose.

Senior quarterback Sam Bolinsky tossed four touchdown passes, and classmate Alex Childs ran for 120 yards.

“We definitely wanted to make it back (to Gillette), that’s been one of our main goals,” said Bolinsky, who said left tackle Thomas Keough played flawlessly after being pressed into a starting role because of an injury. “We’re going into Thanksgiving focused on Clinton, and then we’ll hopefully get healthy and focus on December 1.”

The Chieftains received the second-half kick and took to the air, where Bolinsky hit Will Danby on a cross, and Danby juked and shook his way for a 30-yard score that gave his team a 22-14 lead and the momentum just 43 seconds into the quarter.

After coming up with a fourth-down stop, Nashoba added to its lead when Bolinsky hit Alex Childs for an 11-yard score for a 29-14 lead.

“Our guys did a nice job with the adjustments and put together a great second half,” Nashoba coach Jamie Tucker said. “It was a very physical game, back and forth, and our kids responded.”

The Chieftains added the knockout punch when Childs hit a 19-yard field goal to make it 32-14 with 1:44 left.

Nashoba put together a quick scoring drive late in the first half.

The Chieftains needed just 40 seconds to take a 15-14 lead into halftime.

Bolinsky hit Danny McNulty in the left flat and McNulty sprinted 14 yards for a score.

“Sam did a great job, he was very accurate in the second half,” Tucker said. “Our receivers and our line did an awesome job in making some adjustments.”

Gloucester wasted no time going to what has been its strength all year, its rugged running game.

After three soften-them-up runs, Daylon Lark broke off a 55-yard touchdown run. Marc Smith added the conversion rush to give the Fishermen an 8-0 lead less than two minutes in.

Undaunted, Nashoba put together a seven-minute drive on its first possession.

Most of the damage was done on the ground, but the drive ended when Bolinsky hit Matt Johnson for a 3-yard touchdown. Childs’ conversion rush tied it 8-8 late in the first.

Gloucester came up with a stop on fourth down deep in its own territory late in the second quarter and rode the momentum to a scoring drive.

Lark got his second score of the day on a 19-yard run. Nashoba stuffed the conversion run, but Gloucester enjoyed a 14-8 lead with just more than three minutes to play in the first half.

—Contact Tom Flanagan at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @tgsports.