SLIDESHOW: Raiders End Flyers Football Season

By Varun Tekur

Photos by Petroni Media Company

***

The Flyer 7th grade team took on the Wellesley Raiders in the Bay State Youth Football and Cheerleading Conference playoffs Sunday afternoon.

Looking to avenge their loss to Wellesley earlier in the year, the Flyers got to play on the comfort of their home field at Framingham State University (even though they were technically the away team as the 3rd best team in the conference taking on the 2nd best team).

Framingham received the opening kickoff and hoped to score quickly against a talented Wellesley team. However, they turned the ball over on downs and the Raiders ran Framingham’s punt for a touchdown to take a 6-0 lead.

Despite this, the Flyers responded with a massive 50-yard touchdown pass from Peter Sinesi to William Villafane. Villafane made the catch and broke away from several Wellesley defenders to score.

Mason Moy’s 2 point kick gave the Flyers an 8-6 lead.

The high-scoring trend of the game continued when the Raiders grabbed the lead again on a 54 yard touchdown run, making the score 12-8.

Wellesley then recovered an onside kick and scored on a 10 yard run on their next drive. Another 10 yard Wellesley touchdown run and 2 point extra kick at the start of the 2nd quarter made the score 26-8.

Although it looked like the Flyers were out of the game at this point, they proved the whole crowd wrong. Akye Boston picked up the Raiders’ next onside kick and sprinted to the end zone on a 45 yard kickoff return. Mason Moy had another 2 point kick after the touchdown and the Flyers were now only down 26-16.

During the half, Akye Boston, Jamar Williams, and, and Dante Marino made key plays on defense for Framingham. Later in the quarter, Wellesley added another touchdown to the scoreboard and they now led 34-16. This was the score when both teams left the field for halftime.

The Raiders began the 2nd half with the ball and aimed to add even more points to their lead. However, William Villafane soon made his second big play of the game by stripping the ball from Wellesley and recovering a fumble. This gave Framingham some hope for a comeback, but they quickly had to punt the ball and couldn’t score. Another Raider touchdown late in the 3rd quarter extended their lead to 42-16.

On the next Framingham drive, Dante Marino helped bring the score closer together with a 40 yard run that set up his 1 yard touchdown run. Wellesley responded near the beginning of the 4th quarter with a touchdown and extra point kick which made the massive score even bigger.

Wellesley won the game by a score of 50-22, ending the 7th grade Flyers’ season.

It was a great year for every single team in Framingham Youth Football, and no matter the record, every team had a slew of memorable moments throughout their season.

The 7th graders were the only Framingham team to make the Baystate Conference playoffs and are now officially eliminated, but the fact that they even got to play in the playoffs shows that they were a supremely talented team. I hope everyone has enjoyed this year’s football games as much as I have, and I’m looking forward to another exciting season next year.

***

Tekur is a Framingham High students and founder of the new Framingham High Sports Writing Club. This is his fourth season providing FYFC football coverage to Framingham Patch.