Homecoming

Homecoming

It's a beautiful day! Time for some football...TONIGHT

West Boylston (2-3) at Narragansett (2-3)
(Tonight, 7 p.m. Stuart Field)

Last week’s results: West Boylston def. Leicester, 21-8; Narragansett def. Ayer-Shirley, 28-7.

Narragansett’s keys to victory: Pay enough attention to West Boylston fullback Cole McCubrey so he doesn’t beat you all by himself without forgetting about quarterback Alex Thomas.

McCubrey enters tonight’s game as the second leading rusher in all of Central Mass., already gaining 834 yards on 76 carries for an impressive average of 11 yards per attempt. McCubrey is also dangerous as a receiver out of the backfield with 13 catches for another 187 yards. He’s scored 10 of the Lions’ 14 touchdowns in five games this season.

But the Warriors can’t put too much of their defensive focus on McCubrey with Thomas averaging 12 pass attempts per game and rushing for 146 yards on 24 carries.

’Gansett won the turnover battle in last week’s win over Ayer-Shirley after committing four in back-to-back losses to Maynard and Littleton. The Warriors even stepped it up a notch when Brandon Ladeau scooped up a fumble at midfield and ran it all the way back for a touchdown. Tom McDonald added a great leaping interception near the goal line to keep the Panthers off the board and Tyler Houle also pounced on an Ayer-Shirley fumble.

Ladeau was also a big part of the offense for the Warriors last week with 91 yards rushing on just four carries. That should take some of the load off of Joe O’Neill and Kyler Clancy going forward.

Quotable: “They’re a mirror image of us in the Wing-T. They give the ball to their fullback and he’s the heart and soul of their team as much as Joey is for us. We’ve got to figure out how to defend the things that they do and try to stop (McCubrey) or at least slow him down. The quarterback is the next kid of concern. He runs a lot of option and dive option like Maynard and we’re working hard on defending that stuff. ... I think we’re always looking for the kids to step up defensively and we challenge them every week to make a big play and make a difference in the game and when you see kids make an interception or cause a fumble or a scoop and score those are always nice things to see and you feel happy for the kids that they made a big play. ... It’s hard missing Josh Eaton out of the backfield. Josh is a two-year starter for us and in his absence those kids had to get ready to go. I’m really happy with the way they’ve been playing and the contributions they’ve made. Last Friday night Brad made a few nice runs and broke a few plays for us and really contributed on offense. ... This is a real good gauge for us. They’ve beaten us three straight times, they’ve been in the playoffs and they were in the playoffs last year and we weren’t. We want to try to rectify that and it’s a great opportunity for us to go out there and give ourselves a chance to get back into the playoffs.” — Narragansett head coach John Beary