NORTH ATTLEBORO – It takes a lot of discipline to shut out an offense like North Attleboro, especially at home.
Foxboro forced a couple of timely turnovers along with a couple of key fourth down stops to blank the Red Rocketeers 14-0 at North Attleboro High on Friday night.
“(North Attleboro) was very difficult to prepare for because they showed about every offensive set you can run in football,” said Foxboro coach Jack Martinelli.
After a scoreless first quarter, Foxboro (2-0) came up with a stop in the red zone as North Attleboro (1-1) turned the ball over on downs at the Warriors’ 14-yard line.
Just three plays later, junior Ben Angelini took it to the house from 69 yards out after breaking through the secondary to give Foxboro the 7-0 lead with 4:41 left in the first half.
“Play calling and getting North Attleboro to jump offsides, that helped a lot,” Angelini said about the team’s ability to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. “It’s definitely our blocks and getting the guy and pushing them back.”
Angelini finished with 16 carries with 150 yards and the score on the ground with six of those carries coming on the other scoring drive to start the third quarter.
On that drive, senior captain Lincoln Moore punched it in from one yard out to cap a 13-play, 75-yard drive that ate 7:13 off the clock and put Foxboro up 14-0 with 4:40 to go in the third.
Junior quarterback Mike Marcucella aided by going 9-of-14 with 116 yards through the air.
On the other side of the ball, the defense came up with timely stops with senior captain Shane Henri grabbing a pick to end the first half and another key interception for Marc Francois, Jr. with 4:23 remaining.
“We went after the quarterback with just three and dropped everybody deep, so we got a couple picks and a couple of knockdowns,” said Martinelli. “To me, he was the kid you had to stop.”
The defense came away with a stop on fourth-and-goal before the offense ran out what was left on the clock late in the fourth quarter.
For North Attleboro, junior Chase Frisoli finished 14-of-31 for 167 yards through the air and ran it 11 times for 52 yards and it was the latter that Foxboro focused on stopping.
“My main concern was making sure we had to stop (Frisoli) running the football,” Martinelli said. “The kids did a great job. We packed the box and we relied on our athletes back deep to play good coverage.”
Next week, Foxboro will host Scituate on Friday at 7 p.m. The Red Rocketeers will head to Leominster on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
