WEEKEND PREVIEW
These are the games where coaches don’t need to dust off the old Knute Rockne pregame pep talks which have withstood the test of time. That was certainly the case in Everett this week as the thirdranked Crimson Tide prepared for their bi-annual trek to Westwood on Friday night to face No. 2 Xaverian. The teams last met two years ago, when Everett held off Xaverian, 27-21.
“Our kids know and respect Xaverian, so that’s helped us to be focused,” said Everett coach Rob DiLoreto. “They are aware that this is a huge challenge. Xaverian has a tradition of excellence, their program has earned the respect in this state.”
While Everett might respect Xaverian, it certainly knows it’s established a tradition in its own right. This is a very talented team, one that caught the eye of Hawks coach Al Fornaro in the film he’s seen.
“We changed film earlier in the week and the one thing you see is that they have skilled athletes, they can really run,” Fornaro said. “The defensive line is very good, they really come off the ball very well.
“We’re going to have to be able to avoid giving up the big play because they are explosive. We have to limit mistakes because they are good.”
It will be interesting to see how Xaverian moves the ball with first-year starter Jake Gilbert taking over for graduated All-Scholastic Michael Berluti. Fornaro expressed confidence that Gilbert is capable of doing the things Xaverian needs to do in order to be successful.
As for Everett, which won the Greater Boston League title in Fall II, DiLoreto likes how his team is progressing.
“I’m very happy with the focus of our team,” DiLoreto said. “They put in the time with the strength and conditioning and I feel like they’ve improved steadily in the preseason.”
Elsewhere on Friday night, No. 4 Central Catholic heads west to face Div. 1 state title contender Springfield Central . No. 5 St. John’s Prep visits No. 12 Marshfield, while No. 8 Mansfield puts its 16-game winning streak on the line at St. John’s (Shrewsbury). In a battle of new head coaches, No. 9 Duxbury is at Bridgewater-Raynham.
Several appealing nonleague matchups are on tap south of the city. Middleboro is at Apponequet, Scituate hosts Milton and Barnstable travels to Brockton. An interesting Middlesex League crossover game takes place in Reading, where the Rockets will look to snap Melrose’s state-best 21game winning streak.
No. 1 Catholic Memorial headlines a small Saturday slate as it hosts Capital Prep (Conn.). Wellesley takes on Longmeadow,
while Danvers travels to Tewksbury.