Gloucester Alumni

Matt Langone

After carving up the Northeastern Conference on mainly grass fields this fall, the Gloucester High School football team used the smooth turf surface to its advantage en route to a dominating 39-0 victory over Masconomet in the Division 2A semifinals. With the win, Gloucester remained unbeaten at 12-0 and punched its ticket to the Division 2A Super Bowl on Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. The Fishermen will play Hingham (time of game to be determined today).

Of course, the Gillette Stadium field is turf, which should work to Gloucester's advantage.

"We practiced on Endicott's turf field the other day and it was so nice," said Gloucester head coach Paul Ingram. "One of our biggest strengths is speed and quickness and our kids just fly to the ball on this stuff."

It would be tough to overlook the performance put forth by the Gloucester offense. Senior running back Andrew Fulford had a game to remember with 117 rushing yards and five touchdowns. Senior Brian Harnish also hit the century mark with 100 yards on five carries and junior Taylor Burbine had four carries for 67 yards and a touchdown.

As impressive as that was, the Fishermen defense posted an equally memorable showing.

Gloucester's pursuit of the ball was a thing of beauty, using a blistering pass rush and fundamental tackling. Senior defensive end Anthony Enderle recorded three sacks in the first half while teammate and fellow senior Adam Quinn added a sack of his own and a fumble recovery.

The play of the Fishermen front seven set the tone of the game very early and clearly made the point that the Fishermen would not let Masconomet sophomore quarterback Chris Splinter beat them.

Splinter came into the game as a duel-threat, with over 800 yards rushing and 800 yards passing. However, he was held to just 4 of 11 passing for 36 yards and -5 rushing yards. He was also picked off twice by junior Taylor Burbine and senior Adam Desmond.

After the game, the Chieftains' signal-caller could do nothing but compliment the Northeastern Conference Large champs.

"Those linebackers were blitzing every time and they were flying up to the line," said Splinter. "It was real tough. We definitely haven't seen anything like that all year. They just came at us."

According to Enderle, the game plan coming in was focused completely on containing Splinter.

"Containing splinter was basically the whole game plan," said Enderle, who finished the game with five tackles. "He's a great quarterback and he is only a sophomore. The early pressure that we were able to get really helped out a lot."

Throughout the season, the Gloucester football team has been nothing short of brilliant. But a performance like this in a playoff atmosphere was enough to even shock Ingram just a little.

"This game surprised me," said a Ingram with a smile. "You never know how a game can turn out, but getting off to a good start was huge."