Pedrini’s 3 TD’s tame Wildcats; Melrose wins 33-7
Published in the October 14, 2016 edition
MELROSE FOOTBALL earned a 33-7 win last Friday night over Wilmington at Fred Green Field. The team will travel to Stoneham tonight to face 4-1 Stoneham. (Donna Larsson photo)
By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE — The Melrose Red Raider football team is back to their winning ways thanks to a 33-7 blowout over Wilmington on Friday, Oct. 6 at Fred Green Field in Melrose. The victory improves Melrose to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in the Middlesex Freedom League.
Red Raider Mike Pedrini earned hat trick for Melrose; the running back’s three touchdowns declawed the Wildcats while a tough Melrose defense flexed muscle, and limiting Wilmington to one touchdown in the evening and stopping several 4th down drives.
Pedrini, last year’s league MVP, reached his 10th touchdown of the season after the win. Against the Wildcats he amassed over 200 yards on 15 carries; while promising Melrose sophomore Kevin Peete earned his first varsity TD in the fourth. The Red Raiders never held a deficit in the contest.
To Melrose head coach Tim Morris, it was important for the offense to get back on track after last week’s Watertown loss. “I said this before this year, we had to get back to basics, stress fundamentals, tacking, blocking and finishing. Our offense was really anemic last week and it was good to get it on track, running the football and controlling the game that way. Of course Mike was a big part of that.”
Fans showed up to Fred Green Field expecting a Pedrini Show and they got it. The running back pulled off an impressive opening drive sprint, an 85 yard rushing TD that broke several tackles, with just 5:00 into the game that gave Melrose a lead of 6-0.
Melrose quarterback Jack Mays (7-10 passing, 90 total yards) connected down field with Pedrini and Steven Abbott on Melrose’s next possession. Mays capped off the drive with his own 10 yard touchdown with less than a minute left in the first. A good extra point by freshman Chris Cusolito gave Melrose a 13-0 advantage.
Thanks to some tough defense, including sacks by Melrose’s Colin Kiernan, Cam Rosie, Mike Sickler and Derek DiRaffaele, Wilmington turned the ball over on downs and Pedrini scored again from the 35 to give Melrose a halftime lead of 20-0.
Pedrini hit his third touchdown with 5:00 left in third quarter on a five yard scamper that gave Melrose a 26-0 lead. Melrose forced the punt for the rest of Wilmington’s possessions thanks to key tackles from Patrick Whelan and Colin Casey. Wilmington QB Robbie Ducharme found the end zone on a keeper that gave Wilmington their only score of the night and a 26-7 Melrose lead.
During Melrose’s final possession of the night, junior Ray Guity sprinted a 30 yard kickoff return and, on a handoff, sophomore Kevin Peet broke tackles on a 35 yard sprint, capped off by his own five yard touchdown that led to Melrose’s final 33-7 score.
Perhaps the best news of the night was the addition to special teams in Chris Cusolito. The freshman kicker was able to do something Melrose hadn’t been able to do all season: kick a point after. He has replaced brother Mike Cusolito, a weapon for Melrose last year, now graduated. Morris acknowledged that effort. “Cusolito is a freshman but we had to bring him up. We’ve worked with him and of course he has good bloodlines, so he can do it. He just has to keep working at it.”
Melrose righted the course just in time for tonight’s marquee event in Stoneham, when 2-1 Melrose plays 3-1 Stoneham for (potential) league bragging rights. Currently, Wakefield stands at the top of the Freedom League, which gives this year’s Thanksgiving game some official weight.
The Stoneham Spartans have been a surprise threat this season, after enjoying a solid postseason in 2015. Thus, Melrose has had their eye on this match up. The Raiders will have be prepared for a tough junior quarterback,Tre Pignone. Stoneham had enjoyed an undefeated season until losing to Wakefield last Friday night, 20-13.
“Stoneham, like always, is tough offensively and defensively,” said Morris. “Usually they have good size, good speed and skilled kids.They’re going to grind it out on you, control the ball, control the clock and try to keep the ball from us. So we have to get some stops in and hopefully slow their offense down.”
Melrose will travel to Stoneham High this Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m.
