PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick football team has some big shoes to fill this season, having graduated the last class of players who experienced the magical 2013 season when Fenwick finished with a perfect 13-0 record and won the Division 5 Super Bowl, crushing Northbridge 28-0 at Gillette Stadium.
While those players may be gone, the spirit of that championship team became embedded in the program and continues to keep the bar high.
“This is the first year that nobody from that 2013 season is here, but that team did more than just win a championship,” said head coach and Fenwick athletic director Dave Woods. “Guys like Nick Bona set the culture for our program which has carried over year after year and has become engrained in the football program to the point where we always have the same goals, and that is to win the league title and get back to Gillette and play for a Super Bowl. This year, that was a huge part of the off-season dialogue, as it has been every year.”
However, it won’t be easy for the Crusaders, who open the 2017 at Hamilton-Wenham Saturday afternoon and are hoping to right the ship after finishing last season with a 3-game losing streak, the final one to St. Mary’s on Thanksgiving Eve that cost the Crusaders a share of the Catholic Central League title.
The year’s team lost a talented group of seniors, a class that Woods said just knew how to win and may have been the most successful in the history of Fenwick football.
“During its four-year stretch, that class may have been the most accomplished of any in terms of wins,” he said. “That kind of group will be tough to replace.”
Tough but not impossible when you consider the talent this year’s team features, starting with 2-time CCL all-star quarterback Cody Bright. The junior threw for 1,216 yards and 11 touchdowns and picked up 775 yards on 88 carries last year as a sophomore. As a freshman, he led the Crusaders to a 9-2 record and a league title. Woods says he is “the total package.”
“He can run, he can throw and reads the defenses so well,” said Woods. “He is a leader on and the field and in the classroom where is a straight A student. He just has all those intangibles and has such great instincts and when you add it all up, he is just a phenomenal player and person.”
Bright will serve as a tri-captain with seniors Michael Sellards and Jaycob Reynoso. The trio has had its share of adversity in the off-season with Bright and Sellards, a tight end and defensive end, undergoing surgery for football injuries, and 2-way tackle Reynoso on the sidelines with an injury.
Bright has a talented group of targets this season, starting with Sellards and senior Chris Fisher at tight end, along with split ends Dylan Mullen, a 2-year senior starter, and newcomer and St. John’s Prep junior transfer Keegan O’Connor. Juniors Derek DelVecchio and George Fistakoris return at slot receiver.
Woods said he has three players in the backfield mix, including senior Brandon Kenney, sophomore David Cifuentes and senior Louis Naranjo.
“Brandon missed last season with an ACL, but is a tough kid, and Louis is just a throwback, old-school player, similar to Luke Hufnagle from our team last year,” said Woods.
Senior two-year starter Luck Deschenes returns to anchor the offensive line with senior guard Matt DiBiase and junior guard Ian Connor, while junior Tom MacDonald and sophomore T.J. Hazard have nailed down the tackle positions.
Reynoso, senior Colin Cargill and MacDonald are in the mix at defensive tackle, while Fisher and Sellards will hold down the fort at defensive end. The linebacking unit includes Naranjo, Kenney and senior Mateo Cifuentes.
The secondary unit includes Mullen, O’Connor, Fistakoris and DelVecchio.
So far Woods has been impressed with the play of Naranjo, Kenney and Mullen.
“Louis played junior varsity last year and dealt with injuries, and he and Brandon have both stepped up and look great, while Dylan also has had a great preseason,” said Woods.
Last year the Crusaders raced out to a 6-1 record, then defeated Amesbury in the quarterfinals of the playoffs only to lose a 42-34 shootout to Triton in the North Division 3 semifinals.
“Early on we played great against the run, but we Triton runs a great spread and they got us down early,” said Woods. “We had not seen a ton of spread and certainly had not seen it at that speed. Cory kept us in the game, but the bottom line we just had trouble defending their spread.”
A new twist this year is that Fenwick has moved from Division 3 to Division 6.
“The new division is very similar to our Super Bowl year with Stoneham, Salem Hamilton-Wenham and Ipswich and the tech schools,” Woods said. “We know Austin Prep, we know Arlington Catholic and Great Lowell was also in our division last year, but, honestly, right now, we are not thinking about anything except our game at Hamilton-Wenham on Saturday. The playoffs are a long way off so for now, it’s just one week at a time.”
Fenwick has non-league games against Dedham Sept. 15 and Pentucket on the road the following week. The Crusaders then play a gruelling stretch of four straight CCL games before heading into the playoffs in late October.
Once again, Fenwick finishes the regular season with a Thanksgiving Eve showdown against CCL rival St. Mary’s. This year’s game is at Manning Field on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 6 p.m.