Football Preview: Reading Looking to Crush Masco's Hopes for Revenge

With just five days to prepare for tonight's road game against Masconomet, the Reading Memorial High School football team has spent the past week cramming for what could prove to be a big test.

Masco lost a heart-breaker in the Div. 2A Super Bowl last season with a 13-12 loss to Marshfield at Gillette Stadium. That same season, the Chieftains were also handed their worst defeat of the year in a 35-0 drubbing by Reading.

With those two games in mind, it won't be hard to imagine tonight's game being one of the most physical of the year, especially with Masco out for revenge.

"I think they are (looking for revenge)," said Reading head coach John Fiore. "They played at Gillette Stadium the game before us last year so they have a pretty good club and I think they were surprised a little bit when they played us. I know they have a lot of pride so I know it's probably weighing pretty heavily on them."

While the Chieftains lost a lot of key players to graduation, team captains Eric Bermudez (OL/LB), Brodie Green (WR/OLB), Kurt Hunziker (TE/LB) and Tom Chub (OL/DL) should provide a solid and physical corps on both offense and defense.

New quarterback Ben Panunzio will take over behind center and is more of a drop-back, pocket passer than last year's speedy scrambler Chris Splinter, who now plays at Harvard. Panuzio hit receiver Brodie Green for a pair of 26-yard touchdown passes in Masco's 22-14 loss to Lowell last week.

"I like their quarterback," said Fiore. "He throws a good, deep ball. He shows a lot of good leadership out there. On defense they have two linebackers that are tall, rangy kids and they make a lot of plays."

Reading quarterback Brian Bourque had a breakout performance in his first start last week against Cambridge. The senior broke off a 78-yard scoring run before hitting wide receiver Sean Gildea with a 28-yard touchdown pass.

"He's a tremendous athlete," said Fiore. "He's also becoming, each day with experience, he's becoming a tremendous quarterback. He's been contributing to the success of our program for the last couple of years in a lot of different ways."

The Rockets will have a lot of weapons on offense with Larry Gilligan, Alex Valente and Zach Bates all rushing for first-half touchdowns last week.

"We felt that that was out best bet to spread the ball around and spread the field out," said Fiore. "I think that's our strength. We just want to play physical football. There's not much you can do for a team like Masco, you just have to play as physically as possible."

Defensive tackle and captain Jeff Covitz will be leading the defense for the second year and will be looking to shutdown a Masco running game that couldn't find its stride in week one.

"I'm very happy with the way they prepared for the game and very happy with the way they're coming together as a team," said Fiore. "All of the scoring and that stuff will take care of itself if they're playing hard and playing smart."

Rain is in the forecast for tonight with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.