H.S. FOOTBALL: For the 64th time, Hilda stays in North Attleboro

By Tyler Hetu thetu@thesunchronicle.com Nov 24, 2022

NORTH ATTLEBORO — For the next year, Hilda will wear red.
The North Attleboro High football team closed out the 2022 fall season with a 17-12 win
over crosstown rival Attleboro High, scoring early to take a lead that was never matched
the rest of the way.
The win for the Rocketeers moves their all-time record to 64-30-8, and now makes North
Attleboro head coach Mike Strachan a winner of the coveted Hilda Trophy for both sides.
“It’s awesome to be a part of this program, this team, this community,” Strachan said. “I
just love the rivalry that both communities can participate in.”
The Rocketeers punted on their first drive on offense, but their first play on defense saw
Nate Shultz run back an interception from 29 yards out to make it 7-0 with the extrapoint try.
“Coming off of last week against Wakefield, it’s good to get back and play well
defensively,” Strachan said.
The pass, a short-yardage play to Harvie’s left trying to hit Anthony Salviati for a
gain,was admittedly a bad call by Attleboro head coach Jim Winters. Despite the quick
deficit, he said he was proud of how his guys bounced back quickly and put them right
back in the game.
“It was a play we had worked on all week and we thought we’d catch them going one
way,” Winters said. “It was to Salviati, they had him triple-covered and I should’ve known
better. … They shook it off and played outstanding the whole game.”
A handful of punts were traded before the Rocketeers again got to Harvie, with Shultz
again going up for the interception with under a minute to go in the first quarter.
The turnover led to the Rocketeers scoring after the turn of the quarter, with a 43-yard
screen pass to Greg Berthiaume at 11:13 to make it a 14-0 game.
Berthiaume, a constant force on both sides of the ball for North Attleboro all season,
suffered a broken leg on the next drive on offense for the Rocketeers. An all-star talent,
Winters said it’s something you never want to see at any point.
“You hate to see that,” Winters said. “It’s Thanksgiving, I don’t want that to happen. The
kid had a great season, and was a factor on both sides of the ball. … It’s a shame. He had a
great career at North and it’s a shame he couldn’t finish it.”
For North, the sideline went quiet quickly, but rallied back around Berthiaume’s absence
with a mentality of finishing strong for their senior captain.
“I think it’s important that with everything he’s put into the program, we’ve got to finish
for him,” Strachan said. “We talked about finishing strong and the way you finish strong
is you play right for him. I think the kids did that today.”
North ended up punting that drive sans Berthiaume, and got the ball back two plays later
on a third interception, this time by Chris Hanewich at the seven-minute mark of the
second quarter.
With Nate Shultz heavily involved in the run to bring the ball from their own 15 to
Attleboro’s 12-yard line, the Rocketeers couldn’t add more points on the board ahead of
halftime, as they turned the ball over on downs in the red zone with under 30 seconds
left.
The game entered halftime 14-0 in favor of North. A touchdown from Attleboro on its
second drive cut the difference down, with Adrian Rivera punching it home from a yard
out. A missed extra point made it 14-6 at 7:20 in the third.
North Attleboro’s Austin Clemente then added a 35-yard field goal at 6:30 in the fourth,
adding insurance against a pesky Bombardiers squad. Showing late life, and not going
down without a fight, the Bombardiers added another touchdown on a Harvie-to-Brody
McKenna 7-yard score — but failed on the 2-point conversion to make it a 17-12 game.
An onside kick was recovered by North, and a 33-yard completion from Chase Frisoli to
Shultz on a third-and-29 situation put the ball past midfield to give the Rocketeers a late
first down. The Big Red then kneeled out the clock to secure the win.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” Winters said. “The first pass we throw is a pick-six and all of
a sudden North is feeling pretty good. It didn’t deter us at all, we battled and battled. …
I’m so proud of our kids, we battled all the way to the end.”
Looking at the scope of the season, and the seniors who laid the groundwork for the next
era of both programs, both coaches are pleased with the work that has been done to
commit to the football program.
“The captains helped a lot. They bought in right away, you need that,” Winters said. “We
had some setbacks, learned a few life lessons, but to their credit they understand how we
want to do things now and how we want to hold ourselves accountable. … I hope they
leave the field today a little more proud of the program than when they first got here.”
Attleboro bids farewell to seniors Spencer Sherck, Ayden Ramirez, Logan Briggs, Cole
McKenna, Aiden Hochwarter, Joseph Argenti, Adrian Alves, Ethan Lako, Casey Victorio,
Frans Estime, Michael McGowan, Isaiah Miranda, Jayden Tetreault, Jaconb Wild, Jack
Fitzgerald, Henderson Acevedo, David Nunes and Salviati.
North Attleboro signs off on a heavy senior class of Jovany Rivera, Reed Collins, Nathan
MacDonald, Michael Simonian, Joseph Quinn, Kyle Conroy, John Gallagher, Aidan
Conrad, Julian House, Sean Boyle, Anthoy DaSilva, Harrison Gagne, Jacob Costello,
Austin Dean Daniel Locke, Kaiden Leary, Brendan Brown, Liam Eberle, Zachary
Gallagher, Anthony Santucci, Jack Munley, Traic Isom, Ayden Delaney, Shultz and
Berthiaume. Strachan expressed his pride and gratitude in his boys this season for all
doing their part in bringing the team to an 8-3 record and a Final Four appearance.
“(I’m) super-proud of the seniors, super-proud of the captains,” Strachan said. “We talk
about Delaney, Munley, Gallagher, all the seniors that contributed did great. It all came
down to that this season. … They’re the reason we’re 8-3 and went to the semifinals. They
know the expectation of Big Red football. I owe it all to them.”

H.S. FOOTBALL: North Attleboro reigns over Billerica in the rain to earn Div. 3 state semifinals

By Tyler Hetu thetu@thesunchronicle.com Nov 11, 2022 Updated Nov 12, 2022

NORTH ATTLEBORO — Playing in a rainy deluge, the North Attleboro High football team poured it on as well Friday night at soggy Community Field, storming past Billerica High, 34-6, to punch its ticket to the MIAA Division 3 state semifinals.

The scene was like something out of ‘Friday Night Lights’ as the No. 2 seed Rocketeers stormed ahead early and took advantage of several miscues by No. 7 seed Billerica. The environment of Community Field, already unique in its own nature, proved to be a challenge for the visiting Indians. Fumbled snaps, a missed extra point and missed blocks led to the visitors struggling to slow down the North Attleboro attack as the field progressively became more muddy and wet.

“We talked about the weather all week,” North Attleboro head coach Mike Strachan said. “I think we were anticipating something like this and our kids stepped up to the challenge.”

With Billerica’s spread offense and talented quarterback TJ Green unable to move the ball with any success, the Rocketeers held Billerica to under 100 yards from the line of scrimmage.

“Defensively, I think we did some things to frustrate them early,” Strachan said. “The big thing was, don’t give up the big play against them. When you can stop that, you can be successful, and I thought our kids did that.”

On the other side of the ball, North Attleboro’s running back stable was busy all game. Nate Shultz’ 30-yard touchdown run, following a gain of roughly 40 yards, put the Rocketeers up 14-0 midway through the first half.

It was Shultz’ second TD of the game after returning the opening kickoff for a score. Billerica squib-kicked the ball right to Shultz, who took it 60 yards into the end zone just 14 seconds into the game.

Following a questionable completed pass to put Billerica on the 1-yard line, the Indians’ Scottie Einarson punched it home to cut the deficiit with 5:43 to go in the first quarter.

A missed extra point by the Indians was the last chance they had to put points on the board. From then on it was all Rocketeers.

North Attleboro added its own touchdown from short yardage as Greg Berthiaume scored from the 1-yard line to end the first quarter. Another Berthiaume score, this time from 25 yards out, gave North a 27-6 lead at 1:17 before halftime.

The next and final score was the proverbial dagger as Shultz punched the ball over the goal line on short yardage to make it 34-6 with under two minutes to go.

“We did a lot of work this week. They’re a very good football team,” Strachan said. “They’ve got skill kids all over the place, they’re very well-coached. I felt it was going to come down to what happened up front and our kids were up to the challenge. I felt our kids dominated the line of scrimmage.”

Next for North Attleboro is No. 6 Wakefield next weekend with another trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Game time and date will be announced at a later date.

“Wakefield is a good football team,” Strachan said. “They’re good, physical and beat Plymouth South (on Thursday.) They’re going to be ready to play. We’re going to have to be ready.”

H.S. FOOTBALL: Big Red machine motors past Warriors

By Tyler Hetu thetu@thesunchronicle.com Oct 29, 2022 Updated Oct 29, 2022

NORTH ATTLEBORO — With 1:17 left in the game, the North Attleboro High football team was left with a decision to make on fourth-and-1 from its own 47-yard line — to run for the first down or to punt the ball away, leaving the clock against King Philip Regional High and a long ways to go.

Rocketeers head coach Mike Strachan elected to run, resulting in a game-ending 53-yard touchdown romp by Greg Berthiaume helping clinch a 24-14 win over the Warriors Friday night.

The win improves the Rocketeers to 5-2, and with their ranking in the MIAA’s Division 3 power rankings being at No. 2 entering the night, it’s highly likely that the Rocketeers will jump to the top spot with their win over Division 2 second-ranked King Philip.

“I think it’ll do good things for us (beating King Philip,)” Strachan said. “We’re just going to have to see who we got.”

The atmosphere at Community Field had the energy of a playoff game, with a packed house and two elite programs facing off for more than just bragging rights. The loss bumps King Philip out of a three-way tie for the top spot in the Hockomock League’s Kelley-Rex Division.

King Philip head coach Brian Lee said the playoff atmosphere, along with being paired against a playoff team, makes you find out “who you really are” as a football team.

“One of the reasons you come to play North is because you find out who really are,” Lee said. “They’re not going to lay down. They’re tough, they believe in themselves and they have a culture and history that surpasses our own. We knew it was a big deal. It definitely felt like a playoff situation. Hopefully when the playoffs come, we’ll play better than we did tonight.”

Strachan gave credit to his upperclassmen and his captains for standing out on the field.

“We play a gauntlet of a schedule,” Strachan said. “I think every game we play has got us ready for this. Our captains, seniors, the group was unbelievable. They really put the team on their backs tonight. This was a huge win for the program tonight. A huge win.”

A ground assault helped King Philip get on the board first with a Will Astorino 3-yard run capping a 62-yard drive to start the game. North answered with a rushing attack of its own, formulating an over-eight minute drive to end the first quarter and open the second quarter with a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Nate Shultz to even the score at 10:35 in the second quarter.

Mistakes got the best of King Philip throughout much of the game, with its first big mistake coming on an interception o quarterback Tommy McLeish by North’s John Gallagher — picking the ball following a drop by a KP receiver. Despite the turnover, North was unable to capitalize and score leading to a punt.

King Philip ended up punting as well on the next drive, leading to North driving down the field from its own 37-yard line all the way to King Philip’s 9-yard line. North got as close as the 4-yard line, but a combination of stifled runs and a delay of game penalty backed it up. They settled for a 26-yard field goal, putting North ahead 10-7 with 37 seconds remaining in the half.

The field goal gave North a lead it never lost the rest of the way. A touchdown to open the second half on a 21-yard pass from Chase Frisoli to Bryce Kiser put the Rocketeers ahead 17-7 with 6:01 left in the third quarter. The score remained that way entering the fourth quarter.

Owning possession through the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth quarters, King Philip was calculating a touchdown drive — and converted on 4th and 7, before an errant McLeish pass went directly to North Attleboro’s Jovany Rivera for an interception.

Rivera, who caught it inside his own 10-yard line, ran the ball all the way to King Philip’s 46. Despite just half a field to go, though, North Attleboro fell victim to three penalties on one series and was backed up to a fourth-and-43 situation that ended in a punt.

King Philip answered back with a drive where it converted on third down twice and punched it home with a 3-yard rushing score by Will Astorino to make it a 17-14 game with under five minutes to go.

Strachan had said earlier in the week that both teams were going to have to tighten up at the lines to make sure they’re both run=stoppers and effective run blockers, and he was right.

“It was going to come down to this type of game,” Strachan said afterwards. “It was going to be up front and both teams go at it, and I think our front stood to the challenge. They’re one of the top teams in the state and I’m very proud of how the defense played,” Strachan said.

North took over from its own 23-yard line, was backed up by an illegal procedure, and went on to get the first down before being faced with a 4th and 1 situation where Berthiaume scored.

“We got out-coached, out-played, out-hustled, North just out-classed us,” Lee said. “Compound that with the mistakes we made, we just couldn’t handle the pressure.”

Clemente Boots North Attleboro Past Taunton

North Attleboro sophomore quarterback Chase Frisoli releases a pass just before being tackled by Taunton junior Bryan Joanis in the second half. (Ryan Lanigan/HockomockSports.com)

TAUNTON, Mass. — You never know what to expect in a Hockomock League game.

North Attleboro sophomore Austin Clemente booted a 24-yard field goal with 9:33 left in the fourth quarter and senior Ayden Delaney blocked Taunton’s potential game-tying field goal attempt with 3:08 to play and the Rocketeers walked away with a hard-fought 3-0 win over the Tigers.

Taunton entered the contest averaging over 30 points per game while North Attleboro averaged just a hair under 22 points through its first five contests. Both teams had scored at least two touchdowns in every game this season.Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

But Friday night the spotlight belonged to the defenses — and special teams — as the Rocketeers earned their first shutout in three years. North limited the Tigers to under 200 yards of total offense, while Taunton kept the Rocketeers in check by doing the same.

“We knew this was going to be a grind,” said North Attleboro head coach Mike Strachan. “Our defense played really strong. I thought we stopped the run up front by mixing up a lot of fronts. It’s a great win on the road like we’ve done all year so I’m really proud of our defense and our kids.

“They’re physical and this Taunton team is a legit team. You saw a battle up front with the lines tonight. I thought [Greg] Berthiaume and [Ryan] Bannon played phenomenal and our secondary played great. I knew it’d come down to the wire but if you told me it was going to be a 3-0 game, I wouldn’t have believed you because they have athletes everywhere so I’m super proud of our kids.”

On top of Delaney’s key block, senior Greg Berthiaume blocked Taunton’s 37-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter. North also forced four punts and one turnover on downs, which was a pivotal stop in the fourth.

Taunton’s defense certainly played well enough to win as well. Senior Ethan Harris had a pair of interceptions, and the Tigers forced a turnover on downs in the second quarter and forced three punts. Even North’s only points came after Taunton stood tall with a stop inside their own 10-yard line.

“Our kids came to play on defense,” said Taunton head coach Brad Sidwell. “We had that turnover on downs in the red zone, add in two interceptions…we just couldn’t quite get it going offensively. We couldn’t get a manageable third down, it was always a long one. We executed but they made some plays against us there at the end.”

Fast forward to the drive that resulted in the only points of the game. North’s defense forced a quick three-and-out after a third down sack from seniors Kaiden Leary and Zach Gallagher.

Despite a first down sack from Tanner Brannon, North Attleboro sophomore Chase Frisoli delivered a perfect third-down pass to Jovany Rivera to get the drive going. An offside gifted North a first down and then Frisoli dropped a perfect pass down the right sideline — a split second before pressure from Taunton’s Bryan Joanis — into the hands of Bryce Kiser for a 35-yard completion down to the Taunton 7-yard line.

A holding call backed North up, but Frisoli hooked up with Kiser again to get back to the 7-yard line, but good defense on third down by Taunton’s MMckyen Gonsalves forced an incompletion. With a good hold from Kyle Conroy, Clemente split the uprights for a 3-0 lead with 9:28 to play.

Taunton moved into North territory quickly on the ensuing drive as Malachi Johnson returned the pooch kick to the 43-yard line. A 10-yard pass and catch from Jacob Leonard to Jose Touron moved the sticks, and Johnson rattled off a 19-yard gain. After back-to-back short gains, Ryan Bannon swatted down a third down pass attempt and a fourth down pass play fell incomplete for a turnover on downs at the North 24-yard line.

But on second down of North’s ensuing drive, Harris wrestled away his second interception of the game on a short pass to the right sideline and returned it all the way to the 9-yard line for a first-and-goal scenario. A jet sweep only got a yard, and back-to-back runs up the middle totaled four yards.

Taunton’s attempt at a 21-yard field goal to tie it was blocked by Delaney, who came up the middle and got his hand to it. North took over at the 20-yard line and fed Nathan Shultz (14 carries, 74 yards) to a pair of first downs to run out the clock.

“With five minutes left to go and they have first and goal, and four tries against this Taunton team and how athletic they are…I thought our defense played tremendous,” Strachan said. “We practice that, and I tell the kids every day we have to practice the way we play. Those are the things that we practice and we executed, I was really happy to pull that out.”

Taunton considered going for it on fourth but elected for the field goal attempt from Sete Deletoile, which was essentially the same distance as an extra point.

“I thought we were playing tough and that’s an extra point, we have to be able to make an extra point,” Sidwell said. “If we scored, we would have had to kick it from there too. The fact that it was blocked was frustrating, [Deletoille] has done great for us, I don’t blame him. I’m proud of our kids, we just have to keep fighting. It’s a playoff atmosphere for the rest of the games we have left, it has to be.

North’s defense started strong by forcing a punt on Taunton’s opening drive, but the Rocketeers’ ensuing drive was cut short when Harris read a dump off and picked it off. Despite starting at the North 38-yard line, the Tigers went backward and had to punt.

“They are a good team, they ran the ball hard,” Sidwell said of North. “When we had to, we bowed up but offensively we just couldn’t quite punch it in. They were good inside and they covered our receivers, they made it hard for the quarterback to get the ball to them. We didn’t make too many mistakes, just couldn’t get the ball to them.”

North advanced into the red zone on its third series of the game and hurried to the line on 4th and short at the Tiger 9-yard line but a QB sneak was stuffed by Ryan MacDougall and Elijah Prophete for a turnover on downs.

Bryan Batista and Johnson helped move the Tigers down the field, a 17-yard catch and a 24-yard catch both from Touron moved the sticks twice but the drive stalled and a 47-yard field goal attempt with a minute left in the half was short.

North Attleboro football (1-2 Hock, 4-2 overall) returns to Community Field next week to host first-place King Philip. Taunton (0-3, 4-3) hits the road with a visit to Attleboro.

H.S. FOOTBALL: North Attleboro holds off scrappy Foxboro

By Tyler Hetu thetu@thesunchronicle.comOct 14, 2022 Updated Oct 15, 2022

FOXBORO — A game-ending interception with Foxboro High backed well into its own territory sealed its fate on Friday night, with the Warriors falling at home to North Attleboro High, 19-14.

The Warriors took over possession with 1:01 left in the game, and had the ball spotted on their own 32-yard line, but a penalty backed them well within their own territory on the 13-yard line.

After a string of incomplete passes, a Mike Marcucella pass was intercepted by North’s Ryan Bannon to seal the game with three seconds left on the clock.

North Attleboro head coach Mike Strachan said work done in practice prepped the Rocketeers to be ready when they found themselves on the other side of the ball in a “one-minute drill.”

“Just get back to what we do in practice, we practice these situations and they did it excellently,” Strachan said. “Bannon coming up with the interception at the end of the game, it’s really good for us.”

Longtime Foxboro head coach Jack Martinelli, who is in his 41st year and has his home field named after him, said there was a life lesson to take out of Friday’s game.

“We came out on the short end but I couldn’t ask any more out of a young football team,” Martinelli said. “We did what we thought we could do. We knew they’d be tough to run against and they played tough. It’s a good life lesson, at halftime we just spoke about how everything’s not going to be 28-0 at half in life. This is only a football game, but there’s a lesson behind it. I think they proved to themselves, most importantly, it’s never over until it’s over and they gave it a good shot.”

Early on, it looked like North Attleboro would be playing catch-up, allowing a game-opening touchdown drive to Foxboro that ended in a 23-yard connection from Marcucella to Lincoln Moore. The score put Foxboro up 7-0 with 5:04 left in the first.

On the next drive, North returned in kind. A methodical drive that started on the 20 went the distance, with the Rocketeers finding paydirt at 7:08 of the second quarter on a 5-yard pitch and catch from quarterback Chase Frisoli to Jack Munley.

The Rocketeers weren’t done though. Following their touchdown they successfully recovered a surprise onside kick, which gave them half a field to work with and still plenty of time left in the half.

The gamble paid off for North as a 40-yard drive ended with Greg Berthiuame bouncing outside off a tackler, scampering across the goal line for a score from 18 yards out. The extra point was blocked, allowing Foxboro a chance to take a lead with 6:48 left in the first half and the score 13-7.

From there, the score remained unchanged as neither side could get anything going on offense. Right before halftime, the Warriors were sacked twice by North Attleboro’s Ayden Delaney to make it fourth and long.

With the sure-footed Sam Carpenter on the bench, Foxboro elected to draw up a play on fourth down that went unsuccessful. The call to go for it instead of attempt what would have been a 57-yard field goal was made following discussions between both Martinelli and Carpenter. Had a field goal been successful, it would have sent the game to halftime with Foxboro still trailing 13-10.

“I asked him what he needs, and I know what he needs, but it would have been a little too long,” Martinelli said. “I had to make a decision, and he wasn’t comfortable with it.”

In the second half, two punts and two interceptions, both from North Attleboro’s Chris Hanewich, came before the next and final score of the game. The Rocketeers were given the ball on their own 44-yard line, and marched down the field with the end result being a Frisoli-to-Berthiaume connection from 5 yards out.

After the touchdown drive in the first series Strachan said defense stepped up and held the Warriors at bay, despite their ability to connect passes at times. In Strachan’s eyes, the winning formula was playing good up front and stopping the run while also applying pressure.

“That first series, we didn’t look very good,” Strachan said. “I think we settled in and Hanewich played really good in the secondary and we played really good up front. From my perspective, that’s where it was won or lost — up front. I’m really proud of our kids.”

The score, along with a failed two-point conversion attempt, made it 19-7 at 8:41 in the fourth quarter. Foxboro ended up scoring late in the fourth, with 2:47 to go on a Marcucella to Tony Sulham score, but weren’t able to add on any more.

The win for North Attleboro moves it to 3-2 on the season. Foxboro falls to 2-4.

2021 – Wedge Season

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

Week 9 – 11/2/18 – Playoffs – Week 2

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Week 8 10/26/18 – Playoffs – Week 1

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Week 7 – 10/19/18

Herald North Canton Headline North v Canton Herald Story

Week 7 – 10/19/18 – North Canton for a share of the Davenport Division Title

Podcast will posted on Thursday 10/18/18

Week 5 – 10/5/18 – North v Foxboro

Week 4 – 9/29/18

Week 3 – 9/22/18

Week 2 – 9/14/18

Week 1 – 9/7/18

RED ROCKETEERS RUSH THE FIELD: North Attleboro takes a 7pt lead with 1:30 left in the game thanks to Brendan McHugh's balancing act.

A goal line stop seals the win over 2x defending state champion King Philip, and the student section rushes the new turf!@ABC6 @NorthHigh1 pic.twitter.com/sicLwr9UPI
— Ian Steele (@IanSteeleABC6) September 8, 2018