6th Grader's Suffer First Loss; 7th Grade Finishes Season Undefeated; 8th Grade Loses a Close One

Only a few events in the world can top the excitement of last night's late-inning heroics by Shane Victorino as the Red Sox paved their way to their third world series in a decade. One of those few events is Framingham Youth Football, especially when it's Framingham vs. Natick. Three great games today stole the show from the Red Sox and the Patriots as the Flyers concluded their regular season.

The 6th grade Flyers finished their season with a 7-1 record, suffering their first lost today at the hands of the Hawks. Despite a strong game from Shane Ayotte, who scored three touchdowns (one for 47 yards, one for 56 yards, and one a 1-yard punch in), the Hawks battled tooth and nail on the way to a 28-22 victory. The Flyers enjoyed very strong defensive play as they swarmed to block a punt. Jordan Ortiz recorded a sack while Jacob Lopez recovered a fumble. The Flyers led in the second quarter but were hurt by an onside kick that Natick recovered right before the half, setting up the equalizing touchdown. The Hawks pulled ahead in the third quarter, going up 20-14, and tacked on another score in the fourth quarter to make the score 28-14 after the extra point.
Ayotte's third touchdown of the day put the Flyers within striking distance (28-22). The Flyers stopped the Hawks in the red zone on the 15 yard line, thanks in part to a sack by Andrew Keane and Jacob Shapiro. With 1:50 left to go in the game, the Flyers made it all the way to midfield but could not break the Natick defense in a game that came down to the final possession.

The 7th Grade Flyers concluded their regular season by beating Natick to go 8-0. The Flyers were in full control in this one as they cruised to a 33-6 victory. Evan Sleight started the scoring for the Flyers with a 69 yard touchdown run while Matthew Noah, Babak Amini, and Mitchell Tor all combined for a huge sack to force a Natick turnover on downs, leading to a Johnsued Lanzo touchdown, one of three for him on the day. Scoring next for the Flyers was Khalid Alford, and Derek Carl caught the extra point pass to make the score 19-0 Flyers going into halftime.
As I previously mentioned, Lanzo scored three touchdowns on the day. The first was on offense with his touchdown run, his next came on the kickoff to open the second half. Less than two minutes later in the game, Lanzo also intercepted a pass (James Draughn had the ball lined up as well before Lanzo appeared out of thin air and caught it) and took it 60 yards for a touchdown. He scored in all three phases of the game. Pretty impressive.
Natick scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but at that point the damage was done and a Benjamin Burgess interception sealed the deal for the Flyers, 33-6.

The injury-prone A team concluded their season with a record of 2-6 after today's 22-6 loss to the Hawks. The two teams were evenly matched as the first half passed with the score being tied 6-6. Natick's runningback found a hole in the defense and sprinted to a touchdown, but the defense responed by forcing a Natick punt on the next possession and after a pass from Aaron Shapiro to Ryan Innis for a short gain, William Luz took the ball 70 yards for the tying score before halftime.
Framingham continued to put the pressure on Natick and got the ball back thanks to a defensive stand characterized by a Maxwell Bernstein take down in the Natick backfield. However, the Flyers could not capitalize and one of the cardinal rules of football, the turnovers kill, reared its ugly head as a Framingham fumble inside the red zone led to the go ahead touchdown for Natick. The Hawks would tack on one final score in the fourth quarter and the Flyers could not catch up, falling 22-6 final.

Thank you to all the volunteers and parents who were an integral part of this year's regular season. It was a great pleasure in watching the kids play ball every Sunday; let's hope there's a few more good weeks left this year.

Go Flyers!