Local teams ready for kickoff

Bartlett's Akeem Belnavis in preseason action (photo by Patriot Staff)

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

Are you ready for some high school football? Ready or not, here it comes!

Shepherd Hill vs. Westborough:
The Shepherd Hill Rams will get things started with a televised contest against Westborough High School Thursday, September 6.

Rams head coach Chris Lindstrom and company will kick things off at 7 p.m. in Dudley in a rematch of last season’s 30-28 Rams’ win in a game that can be seen live on Charter cable channel 3 as the featured game of the week.

In last season’s opener, the Rams’ Jessie DiTomasso had an 18-yard touchdown run and helped his team overcome a 20-8 halftime deficit at Westborough to come back and win.

Look for the Rams to use their run-oriented offense led by senior quarterback Drew Ravenelle and to control the ball and the tempo and pick up where they left off last season.

Shepherd Hill QB Drew Ravenelle

Bartlett Quarterback Ricky Spooner will be a key against Northbridge (photo by Patriot Staff)

Bartlett vs. Northbridge:
On Friday night I’ts Bartlett’s turn as the Indians travel to Northbridge to take on the defending super bowl champion Rams.  A year ago the Rams buried the Indians at the Memorial Athletic Field 35-6 in a lopsided affair. The Indians are looking to even the score.

“Northbridge is tough, they are going to be a good team, they are bringing back a lot of starters from last year’s super bowl team,” said Bartlett High School head football coach Dane Laboissonniere. “They are going to test us on the first night of the season.”

The Indians were still in the process of sorting things out prior to scrimmaging Worcester Vocational Tech last Friday and Laboissonniere wasn’t showing his cards quite yet.

“We still have some position battles going on. We won’t really know until we get to Friday night what we are going to see out there. We will probably use a good mix of young kids. We have a lot of kids figuring into the rotation.”

There may be some surprises with the Indians but what is pretty certain is that the offense will be run by junior quarterback Ricky Spooner, who will be relying heavily on senior co-captain Akeem Belnavis.  You can also expect to see senior Billy Phillips get some handoffs from Spooner.

Bartlett's Kelly Chisholm (#30) is a key in the Bartlett secondary

Defensively the team will be led by an outstanding secondary, which features Belnavis (6 interceptions last year), Phillips, and co-captain Kelly Chisholm. The linebacker’s core will be led by senior co-captain Mina Zaky and sophomore Neil Flanagan, who has been looking spectacular at practice.

Oxford vs. Bay Path:  

The Oxford Pirates travel to Bay Path on Saturday afternoon for a  rematch of last year’s 26-13 opening day loss to the Minutemen.

Oxford's Liam Pickett switching positions this year

Senior Liam Pickett, who has been seeing a lot of time at quarterback so far this season, had a 20-yard TD reception in last year’s battle with the Minutemen and hopes to play an even bigger role in this year’s contest.

Pirates first year head coach Mike Adams is optimistic about his team heading into the season. “So far we are doing great and starting to clean up the mistakes both offensively and defensively. We are getting better every day and it shows in our practice tempo and in our scrimmages.”

Adams also said that he will be announcing his team captains early next week.

Oxford's Tyler Barrie does it all for the Pirates

One player who should be a big factor this season for the Pirates is Senior Tyler Barrie, who looked great this past Saturday in a scrimmage against Blackstone Valley Tech. Barrie will be playing a key role on both sides of the ball as well as handling the punting duties for the Pirates.

Read more about Oxford-Sutton Pirates and high school football in the View From The Sidelines column published every week in the Patriot and contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with feedback and comments.