Medway & Millis December 2017

Page 26 Medway & Millis Local Town Pages www.localtownpages.com December 2017
Sports
Millis Returns to Super Bowl
By Christopher Tremblay
For the second straight year,
Millis took a trip to the Super
Bowl. Millis finished the season
10-1 (5-0 in league play) and
earned themselves a spot in the
Division 8 South Tournament
where they defeated three top
notch teams to get the chance to
play for the Super Bowl Championship.
In getting to the Championship
game, Millis took out West
Bridgewater 49-20; the number
two seed and undefeated, St.
John Paul II 42-14 and Wareham,
the number one seed,
31-18 before heading to the
State Tournament, where they
defeated Cathedral (9-1) 40-22
in the Semi Finals.
“Coming into the season we
didn’t expect to repeat, but we
felt we had a pretty good group
of athletes coming back having
only graduated a few players
from last year’s Super Bowl
team,” Coach Dana Olson said.
“You not only have to play well,
but you have to have your ducks
in a row and the ball also has to
bounce your way too.”
The season opened on September
8 with a 24-7 loss to
Holliston, Millis’ only loss of the
season, but despite the loss Olson
saw the good from that game.
“If you rewind back to that
first game against Holliston, I
felt that we played a really good
game, but we had a couple of
bounces that didn’t go our way,”
the coach said. “Since then, we
consistently continued to get better
as the year went along, and I
think that we’re playing our best
football at this point.”
Having grabbed their first
Super Bowl victory since 1999
last fall, Millis came in well prepared
and ready to make a run
at returning to the title game.
Throughout the season Millis,
who plays in the Tri-Valley
League, went up against schools
two and three times their size but
once they got into the tournament
they were playing at their
weight class.
Millis possess a double threat
in the arm of senior quarterback
Bryce Latosek and the legs of
tailback Kurt Hopkins. Against
West Bridgewater Latosek went
17-18 on his passes with five
touchdowns, the next game Millis
was given the run and took it;
Cathedral opted to defend Hopkins,
who only gained 60 yards
on 17 carries.
While Hopkins was held in
check, Latosek took through the
air and posted 379 yards and four
touchdowns en route to the victory
and Millis’ second straight
trip to the Super Bowl. On the
third play of the game, the Millis
quarterback hit senior Dom Zonfrelli
for a 72-yard touchdown
pass. The two hooked up early
in the second quarter and Millis
had themselves a 16-0 lead and
would put up 33 points before
the half came to an end.
At the time of Local Town Pages
publication, Millis was set to play
Hoosac Valley, who put a beating
on Nashoba Tech 76-34, at Gillette
Stadium the first weekend
of December. While the team
is enthusiastic about playing at
Gillette, the coach feels that last
year’s venue at Worcester State
was better suited for the squad.
“The kids are excited, but
in Worcester you have 5,000
fans, and you can hear them,
I’m not sure you’re going to get
the same type of volume with
5,000 at Gillette,” Olson said.
Local Town Pages will follow up
with the game results in our next
issue.
Congratulations
Champions!
The South Shore Kings recently won the U14 State
CHAMPIONSHIP, with 8 Medway students and Medway
Alumni Chris Dwyer as Head Coach and Karl Infanger as
Assistant. The Medway students include Tom Bugbee, Nick
Zanella, Cole Theodore, Drew Delucia, Sam Marchione ,
Alex Infanger and Evan Monaghan.
.D. MURPHY
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