Just maybe, the game of the year

Bartlett Coach Dane Labossonniere and 2012 grad Rocco DiStefano following the Worcester South game

Text and photo by Steev Riccardo

Hello Sports fans!

If you missed the Shepherd Hill-Doherty football game at Foley Stadium last Friday night, then you missed what was probably the high school football game of the year!

The Rams may have come up on the short end of the 34-28 battle, but they certainly left it all on the field and battled right until the final seconds before being stopped inside the five-yard line with 6 seconds left.  It was an epic contest, well played by both teams, who will likely meet again in the playoffs.

Shepherd Hill can’t, however, afford to look past their Thanksgiving morning game with Tantasqua. Despite being 5-5, the Warriors are a very good football team and could be a challenge for the Rams secondary with their superb passing game.

Bartlett/Foley: The Bartlett Indians took their offensive road show to Foley Stadium and they didn’t waste any time putting points on the board with sophomore James Patterson dashing 81 yards on their second play from scrimmage.  From that point on it was the Alex Givins-Perry/Akeem Belnavis show. 

“AGP” scored three times and “The Dream” added a pair of scores as the Indians evened their record to 5-5 heading into their annual Thanksgiving battle with the Southbridge Pioneers.

It’s hard to believe that we are only a few weeks away from the end of the high school fall sports schedule.  It has been quite a been a great ride with a lot of highlights.   We will be compiling our View From The Sidelines Fall all-star team in the weeks to come and it's pretty certain that the list will include names like Barton, Dawidczyk, Ravenelle, and Belnavis, to name a few. 
 

The View’s Top 5 of the week:

1.  Emily Dawidczyk, Oxford Soccer/Track: “The Sweet Assassin” is living proof that you don’t even need to perform to be a top 5 performer of the week. Congrats to Emily on committing to play Division l soccer at Sacred Heart University.

2.  Alex Givins-Perry, Bartlett Football: AGP has done it all for the Indians this season and Saturday afternoon was no exception. The junior back only played three quarters but still rushed for 216 yards and scored three touchdowns in Bartlett 45-6 win over South.

3. Jake Gelb, Shepherd Hill Football: It's like a broken record, Jake Gelb is having a great season for the Rams and continues to blow us away week after week.

4. Neil Flanigan/Matt Pepin, Bartlett Football:  Only a sophomore, Flanigan is having a superb season on defense for the Indians. He recovered a fumble and picked off a pass this weekend against South. Making his varsity debut, Matt Pepin had six extra points and 28-yard field goal, the Indians' first and only one of the year.

5. Tyler Simmons, Shepherd Hill Football:  Senior Tyler Simmons scored a touchdown and was doing a lot of the dirty work for the Rams against Doherty, something he has been doing on a weekly basis.

Gina Manzi: Stay tuned next week for a feature on the Oxford Pirates Gina Manzi, who just finished a brilliant soccer career, and is entering her final season on the Indoor Track team before heading off to college.

Rams Girls in Top 25: Three members of the Shepherd Hill girls track cross country team all finished in the top 25 for the Central Mass Division I title. Sophomore Juleanna Schultz came in third, Junior Stella Worters finished sixth and sophomore Lucy Harmon came in 25^th place.

Until next week, see you on the sidelines! Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any sports news and check out the new View From The Sidelines Facebook page with exclusive photos and news at https://www.facebook.com/ViewFromTheSidelines