Razorbacks head to New England Championship

They have nicknames like “Diggy,” “Oakie,” “Shwabie,” Cheech,” and “Hammer“ As a TEAM, they are described by their coaches as disciplined, focused, driven and the occasionally affectionate “U-G-L-Y.”

After beating Salem in the state championship game on November 14th, this relentless unbeaten squad of 4th-graders beat the Nipmuc Warriors (central Massachusetts) and now advances to Meriden, CT for a chance to be crowned American Youth Football New England Regional Champions on November 21st.

The first step in the Pelham/Windham Razorback New England Championship run took place in Bedford, NH on a raw, wet and windy Saturday against the Warriors. To give you one an idea of how bad the weather was, New Hampshire rescheduled all their high school games from Saturday to Sunday. But the 4th graders from Mass and New Hampshire suited up and went at it. The Razorbacks opened up on defense and as has been their theme all year, they forced a fumble that was recovered by Joe “Cheech” Micciche. The Razorback offense took over with nice runs by Ty Longo and Brandon O’Grady set up by great blocking from Diggy Lawson, Jack Moro, Nick Cunio, Austin Chausse, Zach Debay and Kam Priestley. But the Warrior defense responded by forcing a fumble and taking over at their own 20 yard line. That only seemed to fire up the Razorback defense as Chris Rozzi, Tyler Mercier, Cunio, Collin Peterson, Anthony Suppa, and Lawson forced a 4 and out. With great field position, the Razorbacks pounded the ball in the frigid conditions as Diggy Lawson plowed into the end zone following nasty blocking from Zach Shields, Graham Diack, Liam O’Connell and others for a 6-0 Razorback lead. The Razorback defense kept the Warriors from getting deep as Brian Murdza, Case Foster, Robert Ryan, Moro, Justin O’Connor, Freddy Stamatatos, Lawson and Debay withstood the strong Warrior running attack. Lawson then broke off two hard runs deep into Warrior territory following the blocks of Michael Yeaton, Andrew Schuler, Cunio, Priestley, Peterson, Chausse and Chris Barsalou. O’Grady then followed Suppa’s great lead block to get the Razorbacks inside the 10 and Lawson went through a huge hole for his 2nd touchdown on the day. The defense again held the Warriors without much movement thanks to aggressive hitting by Austin Wentzel, Brian Schwab and Cunio. The Razorbacks scored again with no time left in the half as Longo took a sweep right only to be pursued by two Warrior defenders. Then came the block of the year as Tyler Mercier cracked back and de-cleated one Warrior sending him into the other as Longo walked into the end zone and an 18-0 Razorback halftime lead. In the 2nd half, it got colder and it got wetter but the Razorbacks would not let up as Lawson scored his 3rd TD of the day on the second play of the half and a commanding 24-0 Razorback lead. From then on out it was all defense all the time as every time a Warrior touched the ball, he was met by 3 or 4 Razorback tacklers. Lawson capped off his day to remember by rumbling 70 yards for his 4th touchdown for a score of 31-0, thanks to a conversion by Peterson. The Warriors came back with 2:30 left in the game scoring on a long kickoff return, making the score 31-7 with their conversion. Although, it was too late for this Razorbacks opponent as running back Jack Moro then carried the ball and a bunch of Warriors down the field for a long gain to run out the clock.

During a post-game meeting after the state title game at Stellos Stadium, in a packed locker room of pumped-up players, parents, grandparents, siblings and others, Head Coach Lou Longo said, “Boys, this was all about you, and it has always been since Day One. This is a state title that you set your goals for, and did whatever it took to make it.”

Coach Lou remembered the early days of the season and some of his initial impressions. After the first day of practice, he turned to assistant coach RJ Lawson and asked him his thoughts of the team to that point. “ Coach RJ responded jokingly, “ a state championship?, my goal is that they wear their cleats on the right feet by Day Seven.”

This year brought a number of new boys into the Razorbacks program, and a league rule that stipulated the building of teams by grade level, not weight, as in years past.

“We didn’t know what we had, we saw some kids, we watched them do drills,” coach Lou said.

After the first week of practice, he recalled that the early consensus among the coaching staff was that the team could realistically go 4-4 on the season. But mid way through the first game against Plymouth, there was a transformation.

“It was 2-0 at halftime, and we said, alright, we have our work to do. But, then something happened, and the kids just came together like a team that I have never been part of before.” Coach Lou said.

The team went on and scored 20 unanswered points in the second half of that game and won 22-0. In fact, during the first two games, the defense only allowed three first downs. The Razorbacks dominated their opponents throughout the regular season and playoffs scoring a total of 309 points, and only allowing an astounding 18.

Back in the locker room, Coach Lou commented to the group on his priorities and how the boys took to them. “I said it from Day One, there are no egos on this team, there are no attitudes, there are no bullies, there are no superstars, or people who think they are superstars. It’s 26 kids at age 9 and 10 years old, who looked at each other and looked at the coaches and said that we want to make a run at the state championship.”

“All we asked of them after the first week was, do you trust us?, and they said, yea coach, we trust you.”

Coach Lou then recalled instructing the players to listen to coach John (Cunio) on defense, coach Bill (Barry) on offense, and keep listening to coach Freddie (Stamatatos), coach Perry (Wentzel) and Coach RJ, “because they are going to keep you fired up all year, and tell you what to work on what you did well.”

“We had guys playing hurt, we had guys playing sick, we had guys playing out of position…but, never, never, did we hear a player complain. They all just took it for whatever was best for the team, Longo told the emotional crowd

Then, Coach RJ took the floor and shouted, “I have been waiting all year to say this guys, that was U-G-L-Y,” and the room erupted.

In RJ’s world, ugly means real good, and the boys know that world real well.

Looking to the future, and at the task at hand, Coach Lou told the team, “We are not done yet.”

Now that the Razorbacks are the best in New Hampshire and playing in the New England regional championship game, the players and coaches have a new objective:

“Our second goal is to be the best in New England, and this is the team that can do it.” Coach Lou exclaimed

By Bob Diack