Robbie Brooks (#22) and Brad Picard (#47) team up for a tackle

By Steev Riccardo. Patriot staff photos (more follow)

DUDLEY - Usually when a high school football game is over, the head coach will call a huddle and address his team win or lose; what happened this past Saturday at Shepherd Hill was a bit out of the ordinary.

Shepherd Hill coach Chris Lindstrom didn’t go directly to his team’s huddle but instead went into a stunned Grafton Indians huddle and applauded the Grafton players’ effort following the Rams exciting 14-8 win.  Moments later, Grafton head coach Mike Ross did the same thing, visiting and congratulating the Rams players.

Before the love fest began after the game, these two teams with eerily similar offenses played a grueling physical game that was close from start to finish.  The Rams had the ball last and they won on the last play, that’s how close it was.

“Both teams came to play, it could have went either way,” said Lindstrom. “That was the best that we could play.  It was more complicated than you can imagine, we probably switched our blocking schemes 15 times.  It looks like we are both running one play but we run it many different ways. It’s no fun playing each other”.

Senior co-captain Drew Ravenelle gave the Rams the lead with 4:13 left in the first half when he completed a 22 play eleven drive with a 3- yard touchdown run.  He also ran in the two- point conversion, making it 8-0.

The Indians tied the game with 3:34 left in the third quarter after an impressive drive of their own and up until the final drive of the game it looked like this game was heading towards overtime.

The Rams were trying to put together a final drive but were toppled by two holding penalties in a row, giving them a first down and thirty yards with less than twenty seconds left when Brad Picard broke free and ran 51 yards to the Indians 1- yard line.

After being held on first and goal, Ravenelle snuck in with time running out and the Rams emerged with the final second huge victory.

“I knew the last play was going to be something incredible. I told Tyler Simmons to push me into the end zone if he had to and he got on my back and he pushed me in,” said Ravenelle. “We left it all out there today, there is nothing left, they are one of the best teams in Central Mass hands down; they bring it every single play.”

“It was an absolute war out there,” said Rams Tackle Matt Petrelli. “That is one of the hardest hitting teams I have ever played. We played Auburn and Fitchburg last year and came out smacking and Grafton was right there with them. Every play was a battle.”

“We knew Grafton was a great team, it was like looking in a mirror out there.  We have so much respect for Mike Ross and his team. I won’t be surprised if they don’t lose another game all year,” said Rams assistant coach Ryan Dugan.

On the coaches speaking in each other’s huddles after the game, Lindstrom said, “It hurts when you leave it out on the field. They are all our kids. It’s just a game of football we are teaching them how to be men.”

Shepherd Hill, now 3-0, will take on another tough foe next week when they meet Gardner on Friday night in Dudley.

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Rams Chris Dutting (#24) in pursuit

Jake Gelb follows Tyler Palmerino on a running play

Matt Vertucci (#42) tries to break free

Shepherd Hill's Alexandria Kalligren (#1)

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

DUDLEY – The Shepherd Hill Rams girls field hockey team battled to a 0-0 tie against the Grafton Indians this past  Monday.

The Rams will face local rivals Oxford on Thursday, September 27, in Oxford and Central Mass powerhouse Shrewsbury on Saturday, September 29, at 10 a.m. in Dudley.

Remaining Shepherd Hill Field Hockey Schedule
Monday October 1 at Leicester
Thursday October 4 at Tantasqua
Tuesday October 9 Auburn
Wednesday October 10 David Prouty
Saturday October 13 at Minnechaug
Monday October 15 at Northbridge
Thursday October 18 at Auburn
Monday October 22 Tantasqua
Friday October 26 Holy Name

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Brad Picard gets a great block from #73 Matt Petrelli

By Steev Riccardo. Patriot Staff photos; more photos follow

DUDLEY – There was little question whether or not the Shepherd Hill Rams were ready to play when they took the field last Thursday night in their season opener against the Westborough Panthers. Those that had any doubts most likely dismissed them by halftime as the Rams opened a 38-8 lead en route to a 38-22 win.

After holding the Panthers on their first possession, the Rams went to work and put together an outstanding six-minute 80-yard drive culminated by a senior quarterback and co-captain Drew Ravenelle twelve-yard run for a score.  Brad Picard added the two-point conversion and the Rams were up 8-0. 

The Rams then looked to get another quick score when they attempted an onside kick but the Panthers were able to recover the ball and advance in all the way to the Rams’ 15-yard line. From there quarterback Dan Orlando was able to get his team in the end zone and, following a two-point conversion, tied the game at 8.

The second quarter may have been one of the best single quarters in Shepherd Hill football history. The Rams scored 30 unanswered points to completely dismantle and deflate the Panthers.

Junior Jake Gelb, who had an outstanding game for the Rams, raced in from 22 yards to start the second quarter scoring parade.  Picard then added another two-point conversion and it was 16-8 and the Rams were up for good.

After holding Westborough to three offensive plays, the Rams were at it again, moving the ball down the field with ease and setting up Ravenelle’s second rushing touchdown run, this one going for 21 yards.

Moments later senior Kyle Amico returned a punt 56 yards and the Rams held a nearly insurmountable 33-8 at the half.

The Rams sat most of their starters, including Ravenelle, in the second half and the Panthers put up 14 unanswered points, but the damage was done.

If you want to start handing out awards, it was obvious that the Rams’ skill players (Ravenelle, Picard, Gelb) all played great, but their line play was incredible and if they play like this every week, they are going to be hard to beat.

Shepherd Hill will take on St. Peter-Marian next Saturday night in Worcester in a key match up.  The Rams were beaten 27-20 by the Guardians a year ago in a fierce battle.

Rams senior Back Brad Picard

The Shepherd Hill cheerleaders were ready to go

Quarterback Drew Ravenelle eludes tacklers

The outstanding Shepherd Hill offensive line takes a breather

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DUDLEY, Mass. – Nichols College Director of Athletics Charlie Robert has announced the addition of men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s track and field as varsity sports for the 2013-14 academic year.

Nichols becomes the eighth Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) institution to sponsor men’s cross country, joining Eastern Nazarene, Endicott, Gordon, Roger Williams, Salve Regina, University of New England, and Western New England. The women, meanwhile, will compete against the eight aforementioned schools, along with Curry, which does not sponsor a men’s cross country program.

The CCC does not sponsor track & field as a sport, but rather hosts an invitational each spring for the member institutions which sponsor a program: Gordon (m/w), Roger Williams (m/w), and Salve Regina (w).

Dudley's Anthony Wilga will attend Nichols College in the Fall

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

DUDLEY – Sometimes you don’t have to go very far to get far.

Eighteen-year-old Anthony Wilga has lived in the same house on the same street in the same town his entire life and it looks like that will not be changing very soon, as the recent Shepherd Hill graduate and football star will be attending Nichols College in the Fall.

Wilga, aka “The Wilga Beast,” as he is known around Dudley, topped off an outstanding career scoring 13 touchdowns last season, making it 23 scores in his last two years.  When you consider how many weapons the Rams had in their backfield, that’s quite an accomplishment.

Heavily recruited and narrowing his choice down to three schools, Wilga elected to stay in his hometown of Dudley and play football for Kevin Loney at Nichols College.  There aren’t many people around here who can find anything wrong with that choice.

Loney recently made it publicly known that he wanted to get more local guys on his football team and picked a pretty good player to back his word.

Wilga has been playing football since he was six years old and has gotten better and better throughout the years. The only thing that ever held him back were injuries and even then he did everything he could do to get back on the field, and did so successfully.

Shepherd Hill head football coach Chris Lindstrom saw a lot in him early and called him into duty during his freshman year when the team was shorthanded at fullback.  He didn’t disappoint and ended up seeing significant action the last three games of the year, including playing both on the offense and the defense on Thanksgiving Day against rival Tantasqua.

With tons of promise heading into his sophomore year he blew his knee out (MCL and ACL) six games into the season against Northbridge and his high school career was temporarily on hold.

Wilga worked hard to get ready for his junior year and that’s when everything started to click. “My junior year was my favorite year. No one really knew who I was.  I had to work hard to get my starting job back and I did.”

Yeah he did, to the tune of three touchdowns and 130 yards in the season opener against Groton-Dunstable. He went on to have an excellent year, rushing for 890 yards and scoring 10 touchdowns.

In his final high school season, the 5’10” 210 pound fullback had many individual high points, running for 800 yards and scoring 13 touchdowns, but it was his team’s huge wins over Auburn and Bartlett that he remembers most.

“I was happy beating Auburn after we lost 18-14 in our junior year.  It was crazy, looking around seeing the whole place packed and winning that one and I love beating Bartlett.”

Once his football career officially ended, he went and visited Salve Regina College, Western New England College, and of course Nichols, and his decision was not a difficult one. “I was impressed with the way the coaches talked to me one and one, plus it is nearby.”

Wilga didn’t see any Nichols games last season but has seen lots of film and said he feels comfortable around the campus and has already started working out and lifting weights to get ready for the August 16 training camp.

All this and ‘The Wilga Beast’ gets to stay close to his parents Sandy and Gary and his extended family, which also includes first cousins and fellow graduates and star athletes Kyle McKissick (Shepherd Hill) and Lindsay Bond (Bartlett).

You get the feeling the local attendance will probably be on the rise this fall on the Hill, the other hill that is.

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By Becky Harvey
Patriot Correspondent

DUDLEY - Shepherd Hill High School, which was built nearly 40 years ago, though handicapped accessible, has athletic fields that are not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ) compliant.  The issues were brought to the attention of the school department recently by the wheelchair-bound parent of a Shepherd High school student who, while attending a football game, had troubles accessing the field.  Superintendent Sean Gilrein and Finance Director Bill Trafone have been quick to assess the issues of the non-compliance and tackle the job of correcting it as soon as possible.  The first athletic field to be addressed will be the football field.  Architect Roy Brown is currently working on plans to make corrections and adjustments that will bring the field up to code.  Trafone stated that preliminary plans should be ready by the school committee’s next meeting, which is at Shepherd Hill High School at 6 p.m. on July 19^th.

As it stands now, the football field has a few issues that need correction.  The first, which was noted by Trafone, is that the pitch of the curb leading from the parking area adjacent to the field is too steep.  This makes it more difficult for individuals in wheelchairs to easily move from the lot into the stadium area.  Another issue with ground pitch is in front of the concession stand.  The cement in front of it is pitched in order to facilitate drainage of rainwater and such, but it is steeper than the ADA regulations allow.  Decreasing the pitch in both cases will not cause issues with drainage, but will improve accessibility.  Also a problem at the concession stand is the height of the shelf when the windows are opened.  It is too high for patrons in wheel chairs.  The design needs to incorporate a lower access window for service.  The last subject that Trafone touched upon was the fact that the current grandstand configuration doesn’t allow for wheelchair access.  This will be addressed in the new plans being conceived by Brown.

Trafone stated that the adaptations would soon be underway.  He also commented that the school committee has looked at the other schools in the district and due to the fact that they are all much newer than the high school, they are not facing any of the same issues.

Specific regulations regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 can be viewed and downloaded at: www.ada.gov

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo; more photos follow

Dudley - It has been a long time since Joe Namath held his annual football camp at Nichols College in Dudley, so naturally it was real treat to see high school kids on the field last week honing their skills in the off season.

Nichols College head football coach Kevin Loney, with the help of the National Football League and the Army National Guard, hosted the NFL High School Development Program, a completely free four-day camp at the college.

The NFL High School Player Development program addresses challenges facing high school football programs across the country, focusing primarily on underserved communities.  HSPD serves as a free resource for both high school players and coaches.  The program emphasizes safety and concussion awareness, character development and life skills, and football fundamentals.

Several local returning high school players from Bartlett, Shepherd Hill, and Bay Path Regional were on hand at the camp, along with kids from surrounding schools such as Southbridge, Tantasqua Regional, and David Prouty.

“The big plus for this camp is that it’s not just about football, it’s about character development,” said the second year Bison coach. “We are teaching loyalty, development, sportsmanship, proper nutrition, responsible driving, it’s amazing what we are giving these kids.  We talked tonight about the NCAA rules and how that is going to affect all these kids in the next couple years.”

“It’s a credit to all the coaches of all these high schools, Chris Lindstrom, Dane (Laboissonniere), all those guys, they did a phenomenal job of getting those kids together and getting all the paper work together. It’s a free camp so the paper work is a hassle. The NFL is going to try and protect themselves as much as it can.”

“We have a great community here in this southern Worcester County area and there was a need for a camp like this.  We have some schools here where the kids don’t have a lot of money and it’s a short trip and the parents can take them here.”

Loney was also impressed with the talent level of the kids at the camp. “We have some outstanding skill players out here.  There are some outstanding quarterbacks here.  It’s a credit to the local coaches, you can tell these kids have been well coached.”

Two of those quarterbacks were Shepherd Hill’s Drew Ravenelle and Bartlett’s Ricky Spooner, who both will play huge roles in their team’s offense this coming fall.

This camp is also great asset to Loney and the school that hopes to attract more locals to the college for their secondary education.

“The thing that I have been saying since I got hired here is that we need to turn the roster over and get a lot of Central and Eastern Mass kids here. I can’t talk about who we have coming in, but in our incoming class we only have five or six of the 50 or so kids coming who are from outside of the region. That is our philosophy, to get local kids; it will create a great atmosphere in the stands and that’s what we want.”

“This is great for Nichols College. We are growing and building. Our team had a great spring practice; we had 65 freshmen last year. We took our lumps and learned.  We have to be able to get our guys to the point where they understand they are supposed to go out and win games; we have to execute and win games.”   Loney expects to have 90 guys in football camp in August.

An all-star team of 12 players was selected to go to Foxboro to compete at Gillette Stadium with teams from other, similar camps for an opportunity to go to Indianapolis for a national competition.

“If we can educate the kids as much as we can, then we are off to the races,” said Loney, who is well on his way, following this very successful camp.

Bartlett Coach Dane Laboissonniere

Shepherd Hill Coach Chris Lindstrom

Bartlett Quarterback Ricky Spooner

Bay Path players working out

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Samantha Miller, last game at the hot corner

By Steev Riccardo

The number seventh-seeded Shepherd Hill Rams girls’ softball team’s season ended with a hard fought 2-0 loss in the semi-finals of the Districts on Friday to a very good Holy Name team, ending a successful season for Paul Enman and the Lady Rams.

The Rams, who finished 14-9 overall, and were coming off a big win over Central powerhouse Shrewsbury, had their chances against Holy Name but couldn’t get runs across the plate when they needed to and fell short.

“It was a well played and close game all the way,” said Enman. “They scratched two runs in and we weren’t able to capitalize on the opportunities that we had. We left runners on third base, we left the bases loaded at one point, we were just unable to get the runners home. We attempted a squeeze that wasn’t successful; they made a real good play on it. We were just not able to match them and that was the difference.”

The Rams had to beat the number two seed Shrewsbury Colonials to get to their semi-finals match, which they did in a huge upset 2-1 on Tuesday, June 5, in Shrewsbury.

The Rams win ended a nine-game winning streak by the powerful Colonials, who were penciled in to go far in the playoffs.

Rams’ shortstop Emily Hanson made a game-saving play when she threw out a Colonials runner at the plate to secure the victory in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Pitching ace Molly Covill got the win, scattering six hits while striking out 10 in another superb performance for the senior star.

The Rams scored both their runs in the sixth inning. Sophomore Shelby Stracher had a sacrifice fly, and Covill scored on a passed ball.

Junior Cassidy Colby also had two hits for the Rams in the win, which led them to their showdown with the Colonials.

Unfortunately for the Rams, they couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity and came up short against Holy Name, ending their season.

Head Coach Enman, who replaced Tom Caffelle as the girls coach, reflected on the team’s season and philosophy afterwards.

“Not a whole lot changed when Tom left. We are good friends, we still work together on these players cause we know them well. I take a lot of advice from him and I will run stuff by him. Our coaching styles are very similar so the system hasn’t really changed a whole lot.”

What will now be changing for the Rams is their pitching staff as their ace Covill is graduating and will be very hard to replace.

“She is a real tough competitor and as the competition gets stronger so does she. She is quiet, but she is determined.  She has been pitching at the varsity level since she was a sophomore and she has been our go-to pitcher for the better part of the three years.”

“The nice thing about the Dudley-Charlton system is that it is a strong system and there are young pitchers in the pipeline, will someone be able to step up and take her place and be as effective as she has been this last year, maybe not right away but maybe so, you never know.”

Another key loss for the Rams will be Lauren Gorodeckas, who has also graduated.

“Lauren’s contributions in the playoffs were strong offensively, she was one of our best base runners, she has quite of bit of speed,” said Enman. “She is the kind of kid that came through when you needed her most. She has been here three years along with Molly (Covill). I am really going miss her. She was one of my favorites.”

Third baseman Samantha Miller, who hit .350 this season, also played her last game in a Rams uniform. “We are also going to miss Sam, she has been solid at third base for the last three years,” said Enman.

The Rams do, however, have a lot of talent returning, including the sister combo of Marisa and Cassidy Colby, who are both outstanding hitters.

Cassidy Colby led the team with a .471 batting average and  “She wreaked havoc with that lefty bat and she really came into her own this year,” said Enman.

Marisa Colby, who is only a sophomore, hit .350 this year and will also be a key player for the Rams in the next couple seasons.

The team also has one of the top catchers in the Southern Worcester County League returning in Shelby Stracher, who hit over .300 and has tremendous power.

Shortstop Emily Hanson and juniors Emily Bagley and Jess Schutrick are also returning.

With this strong nucleus of players returning, Enman and his staff have plenty to build on so we can surely expect great things from the Hill in the future.

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Cassidy Colby rounding third with the third Rams run

Text  and photos by Steev Riccardo

Dudley - Senior hurler Molly Covill and the seventh seeded Shepherd Hill Rams started their district run on a winning note with a 3-1 victory over the tenth seeded Algonquin Regional Tomahawks Friday (June 1) afternoon in a scrappy Division I contest played at Shepherd Hill.

The Rams wasted no time getting the party started with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning.  Cassidy Colby singled to start the game and scored on a single by Sam Miller.  Miller in turn was knocked home on a double by Marissa Colby to give the Rams a 2-0 lead.

Marissa Colby later knocked home Cassidy Colby, who had singled, a second time with a double in the third inning to make it 3-0.

Covill settled in nicely on the mound on her way to a brilliant seven-strikeout performance, scattering seven Tomahawks hits along the way.

Things did get a little scary in the top of the seventh but a heads up play by Covill saved what could have been a disaster. 

The Rams pitcher walked her only batter to start the inning and a single gave the Tomahawks runners on first and second with no outs.  The third batter bunted which moved the runners up to second and third with one out when a costly mistake by the runner on third and a quick reaction by Covill resulted in a pick-off play and a key second out in the inning.

Rams Head Coach Paul Enman described the bizarre play afterwards. “The girl was off the base, the umpire said timeout wasn’t called, Molly (Covill) was heads up and gave our shortstop the “hi” sign and got it over to our shortstop (Emily Hanson).  What I think they (Algonquin) thought was going on was that the umpire was talking to the third base coach and that was the equivalent of a time out but time was never called.” 

Covill said she just reacted, “I fielded the bunt, then after the play second baseman Emily Bagley threw the ball back to me and I just noticed the girl was off base and yelled to Hanson and I threw her the ball.”

The play happened so fast that most of the players didn’t even see it, including Stracher, “I didn’t see the play but I talked to Molly about it afterwards and she said that she saw the girl off the base and she saw Em Hanson covering third and she called her and she threw the ball to her.” The play essentially could have saved the game as Covill got the final batter to ground out.

“Molly started off real strong today with a lot of strikeouts the first time through their batting order”, said Enman. “They are a good team and they swing the bat and they play in a tough league so the second time around, they started to adjust and they started to put the bat on the ball and our position players had to step up and do more work. Molly got us through the first three innings and continued the rest of the way, keeping them off balance, throwing some change of speed stuff when necessary and our outfielders got balls that they could handle.”

Covill’s walk in the seventh was very rare as the coach pointed out, “I don’t think she has walked 10 batters all season in110 innings.”

“It didn’t really occur to me until the second to the last batter that this could be our last game,” said Covill. “I was just going out throwing and trying to get outs and I knew we were up by two. I knew if they scored one it would be OK as long as we kept them down.” 

The Rams playoff run last season ended with a tough 1-0 loss to Milford on a walk off homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, so Covill is not about to take anything for granted this time around. “There are no easy games left, every game is going to be tough; we are just going to try and score early and hope for the best. Today we got it done with the early runs.”

It didn’t hurt the Rams that they got an outstanding pitching performance from their ace pitcher either.

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Callie Mulcahy almost unbeatable

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

Dudley - The Shepherd Hill Rams girls’ tennis team put on a clinic on Friday, June 1, with a huge 4-1 playoff win over Gardner in an opening round district match played at the Shepherd Hill tennis courts.

The Rams’ number two singles player, junior Callie Mulcahy, was unbeatable as she has been all year, trouncing Jena Habicht in a lopsided straight set win 6-0, 6-0.

Freshman star Abbey Packard

Rams’ freshman and number three singles star Abbey Packard also continued to be dominant and play outstanding tennis,, beating Liz Hebert 6-3, 6-2 in straight sets.

Rams doubles co-captain Sandy Tarasiak

Senior co-captain Sandy Tarasiak and junior Bri Borus, the top Shepherd Hill doubles team, defeated Emily Colcord and Lauren Wehmeyer, 6-3, 6-1 in straight sets, while the Rams’ number two team of Steph Gallant and Chrissie Chevalier stopped Haleigh Varieur and Brittany Ovaska, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a long battle.

Rams senior co-captain and number one singles player Maddie Billis, who has been playing every opponents top player in every match, lost 6-2, 6-2 to Gardner ace Jen Abtocci.

The win was the Rams’ fourteenth of the year as a team, suffering only five defeats as the Phil Alston- coached squad advances in the district play.  The red hot Rams are 11-2 in their last 13 matches.

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