by Brian Twomey
The 2015 varsity football team is ready to compete with leadership from veteran players. Senior captain Jesse Nemerowicz and junior Armel Conyers led the way on a 20-point comeback against Clinton in the second half last Friday night.
“The first half [of the game against Clinton] I think the the team lacked aggressiveness. I think we thought we were gonna win it, but Clinton came out more aggressive. Since we thought we were going to beat them, we came out slacking. The offensive line wasn’t doing their blocking and scheming,” junior quarterback Armel Conyers said.
“We got together during halftime and figured out the problems with Coach Lentino. He told us we weren’t doing a good job with making our sets. After everybody got their job, they knew what they needed to get done,” Conyers said.
Nemerowicz led the Hawks with 157 yards against the Gaels last Friday night. “He’s looking to get better and better every week. He got better as the game went on,” said Coach Dan McAnespie.
The team has focused on specific parts of their game this week as they prepare to play Assabet tonight at 7 p.m. Hudson has not played the Assabet Valley Aztecs in a regular season game in five years.
“Our offense, just like you saw early in the Clinton game, we were crushing Clinton’s defense because our offense is pretty [good]. We have been working on our defense more than our offense,” Conyers said.
Hawks are looking to bring the intensity from their offensive and defensive lines. “Our offensive line is starting to come together a little bit, and we’re hopeful that they will have a big game this week,” McAnespie said.
“Assabet runs a familiar offense to us; we run a shoe offense. They just run different plays. So our defense has a good idea of what is coming,” Conyers said.
The coaches regrouped over the weekend and broke down the video footage of the game. “Just like any other team. Gotta fix the things we didn’t do so well, and then get better at those things this week,” McAnespie said.
The coaches reviewed their playbooks and decided to create a few new plays and to lose some plays. They believe this will help them keep Assabet off balance.
“The kids know each other. There might be a kid on that team who played in this program in the eighth grade, and then went over there. It’s gonna be a good rivalry; it’ll be good to rekindle with them,” McAnespie said.
A challenge the Hawks are going to face for Friday and the rest of the season is the constant injuries the football team has been suffering. Senior Kyle Gagne, senior Juan Zabula, junior Zach Chaulk, and sophomore Tony Francolini have all suffered injuries.
Despite these setbacks, the team is moving forward. “You gotta have guys ready to go, whether they get hurt during a game, before a game, during the week of practice. Gotta be ready,” McAnespie said.
