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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
After a 5-2 regular season and an appearance in the 2016 MIAA Division 2A South Sectional Finals, the Westwood Wolverines return home to host Holliston in their annual Turkey Day grudge match.
The Wolverines (7-3) handed the Panthers (8-2) their only conference defeat of the 2016 season back on September 30 when Westwood went on the road and took down Holliston 36-34 in a thrilling comeback victory (the Wolverines trailed 20-0 at one point). Now, the two bitter rivals will meet one more time on Thanksgiving following their exits from the postseason and look to end their season on a winning note.
The baseline for Westwood’s offense this season has been feeding the ball to their stud senior running back, Rob Antonucci, who throughout various points of the season has shown an uncanny ability to take over a game. Expect Antonucci to get another large workload during his final high school game on Thanksgiving and turn his touches into points on the scoreboard for Westwood.
Freshman pass rusher Dylan Mahoney (35) has been quite the find for Westwood this season, as he provides the Wolverine front seven with a bright future after a strong 2016 season.
Along with Antonucci, expect senior running back Nicholas Abbatangelo to receive a fair share of carries as well, bulling over a couple of Panther defenders along the way. Antonucci has proven be a workhorse in the Westwood offense in 2016, but Abbatangelo has shown throughout the season that he is more than just the team’s spell-back, and has demonstrated a great sense of strength with powerful runs and impressive stats in Westwood’s playoff wins over Somerset-Berkley (14 carries, 75 yards) and Silver Lake Regional (15 carries, 174 yards, two touchdowns).
What makes this game on Thanksgiving even more special for Nicholas Abbatangelo is the long road that he has had to travel just to get back on to the gridiron after suffering a serious vertebrae injury during his freshman season at Westwood High School. Thanks to Nicholas’s hard work, perseverance, and with the help of some phenomenal doctors and physical therapists at Boston Children’s Hospital, “Abba” has been able to return to not only just play, but also excel at, the sport he loves. Nicholas’ journey back to playing high school football will come to an end on this Thanksgiving, but his incredible work ethic and refusal to give up deserve the highest of recognitions.
Other seniors playing in their final high school football game for Westwood on Thanksgiving are wideout Paul McCarron, linebacker Brendan Delaney, cornerback Johnny Phan, defensive tackle Evan Traister, and defensive ends Noah Henderson, Conor McCaul and Robert Maughn.
On the negative side of things, senior linebacker Dylan Linehan and junior wideout Jake Antonucci (both injured) will not suit up for Westwood on Thanksgiving, creating a void on both sides of the ball. However, Ed Mantie’s group has shown before that they are able to overcome key injuries, so expect the Wolverines to find ways to fill the holes left behind by their injured starters.
In what is going to be an extremely exciting game between two very solid teams, the Westwood Wolverines and Holliston Panthers are playing for more than just pride. The bitter rivalry these two teams share and the idea that this is the last high school football game for both teams’ seniors creates the impression that every player, whether Wolverine or Panther, is going to leave everything out on that field. Also, given the manner in which Westwood defeated Holliston back in September - coming from 20 points down to stun the Panthers and ruin their perfect conference record - there has to be a bad taste in the mouths of every Holliston player traveling to Westwood this Thursday. Revenge is certainly on their mind.
If none of the above reasons are enough to get you out of bed at 10 a.m. and down to Westwood High on Turkey Day to support this team, who knows what will? The compelling storylines are all there to make this game a must-watch. Come out and support this great Westwood High football team one more time on Thanksgiving and help make the Den louder than it has ever been.
