SENIOR CAPTAIN Shea Fogarty was among those who helped Melrose beat Arlington, 35-21, on the road last week. (Raj Das www.edphotos.com)
Fogarty notches big performance for Red Raiders
By BEN PAINCHAUD
MELROSE—Behind the two touchdown runs, pick-six, and fumble recovery of junior Stephen Fogarty, the Melrose High School football team (3-7, 1-4 Middlesex) picked up a win on the road last Friday night against Arlington, defeating the Spy Ponders 35-21.
Melrose did not get off to the most auspicious start. Arlington received the ball to begin the contest and, on the Spy Ponders’ very first play, Marcues Jean-Jacques caught a bubble screen pass from quarterback Jake Schiano and zipped past the Melrose defense for a sixty-five-yard score.
A mental fog seemed to cloud Melrose for most of the first half, like the fog that quite literally hovered over the field for the first twenty-four minutes of play. With 2:45 left before halftime, Arlington struck again, seeing Kayden Mills take the snap and breeze into the end zone. The PAT was good, giving Arlington a 14-0 lead.
On its following drive, Melrose snapped out of its doldrums. Senior quarterback Trevor Botto made a couple of completions to Rob Colozzo, Liam Maher, and Shea Fogarty to bring the Red Raiders into red zone territory.
Coming out of a timeout, and with the ball at the Arlington eighteen, Botto lofted a ball to Rob Colozzo streaking down the sideline. The Spy Ponder defender in coverage tripped, and Colozzo hauled in the pass for a Melrose score right before half. Zach Federico’s PAT cut Arlington’s lead from 14-0 to 14-7.
“I think they had to wake up and start playing, get over this, ‘We’re not in the playoffs,’ kind of fog,” said Melrose head coach Tim Morris. “Finally, we put some drives together, played more consistently on offense, especially. Defensively, I think we were there in a lot of spots, but they just got some big plays. They got great speed. [Jean-Jacques] made a lot of big runs for them.”
Melrose got the ball to start the second half and looked crisp out of the locker room. With Josh Madden taking the snaps on the first drive of the second half, Melrose wasted little time marching down the field. At 8:58 in the third quarter, Shea Fogarty took a handoff from Madden and scampered forty yards to the end zone. The PAT made it a tie game.
After the score by Shea Fogarty, younger brother Stephen proceeded to put on a clinic. On Arlington’s drive following the score, Stephen Fogarty picked off Schiano near midfield and brought the ball all the way to the house for a pick-six.
The Spy Ponders responded. Inside the Red Raider five, Kayden Mills was flipped the ball and breezed into the end zone to tie the score at 21 apiece. However, Stephen Fogarty then stole the show once again when Melrose got the ball back, racing to the end zone for a fifty-three-yard touchdown run.
Two drives later, the younger Fogarty again scored, this time from two yards out. The budding back had earlier set up Melrose at its own twenty-five when he jumped on a botched snap and came up with a fumble recovery. His second touchdown run helped up the Melrose lead from 28-21 to 35-21, deflating the Spy Ponders’ comeback hopes.
“Definitely [Stephen’s] been coming all year and gives us a little speed back there,” said Morris. “He’s been a starter on defense all year. He’s behind upperclassmen, including his brother, in the backfield and it’s just hard to get him the ball a lot, but we were able to get him the ball tonight.”
The Red Raiders will look to ride the momentum of this win into their annual Thanksgiving Day matchup, at Wakefield this year. Though Melrose did not qualify for the playoffs this year, it now has an opportunity to close the season out on a high note with back-to-back wins.
“It’s all about a one-game season now, and that’s kind of senior-focused,” said Morris. “Hopefully, we’ll take some time, a couple of days off. Take some time and rest and then come back for one final game with this group.”
