Charlestown Townies Football

Saturday night at Charlestown High School field , the current pattern of Boston's most historical sports franchises having a renaissance to the glory days continued , as the Townies defeated the Clinton Irish Blizzard 34 - 13 to win the EFL Championship . The championship was the Townies first in 30 years, since the 1978 team won the Park league championship in 1978. Clinton won the coin toss and elected to go on offense. The Townies defense came out strong and forced Clinton to punt. On the Townies first drive the Townies scored on a nice pass connection from Jon "Bucky" Jones to Christian "the Freak" Periera for a touchdown. On the ensuing Clinton offensive possession the defense forced an interception , by Brandon Johnson who returned for a touchdown to make the score 14-0 Townies. Clinton came back strong with a nice drive and scored on a 25 yard touchdown pass from John Riccio to Ernie Adams, cutting the defecit to 14 - 6. The Townies offense sputtered on there next drive and punted . Brandon "MVP" Johnson intercepted another Riccio pass, returning it to20the Clinton 10 yard line. The Townies capitalized right away with Jones hitting Periera to make it 21- 6 Townies. Clinton wouldn't quit, right before halftime Clinton scored again on a two yard touchdown run by Brian Allard to make it 21-13 Townies. Coming out in the second half the Townies offense wanted to set the tone and they certainly did, on the first drive marching down the field controlling the ball on runs from John Rice, Patrick Pochette and Ed Burt. On a big fourth and five from Clinton's 40 yard line, Jones hit Terrence "TP" Parker for a ten yard completion. Jones capped the drive by hitting Periera for a ten yard score in the corner of the end zone, Townies 27 - 13. This drive was controlled by a determined Townie offensive line, including Tom McGrath,Effi Mendoza ,Jay Dodd and Shane Montoni. The defense just shut down Clinton for the remainder of the quarter , with fine play up front from Xavier Rodgers, Nick Rauscher, Kris Cali and Fred Williams , also strong coverage from "TP" Parker and Nelson Montas filling in for injured players. At the beginning of the fourth quarter after another defensive stand the Townies were driving, but fumbled the ball, recovered by Clinton , but on the run back the Townies never gave up and Effi Mendoza jumped on a mishandled lateral . The Townies put the final exclamation point on this game ,sco ring a last time on a 35 yard pass play from Jones to Manny Parent for the final score 34 - 13. The Townies O-line dominated this quarter as the Townies controlled the ball for 11 minutes out of 15 in the fourth. The Townies ran out the clock and started the celebration on a g eat season in Townies football lore. The team had many star players each week but had even more heart and played well together. The Townies win 34-13!! The win capped a great run this season for some veteran leaders like Tom McGrath, Tony Natola and Kori Brown. The Townies would just like to thank the fans that showed up for all our games , it was great to be able to celebrate this with them. We would also like to thank Charlestown Youth Football(Jimbo, Timmy, Red ,Tina and the kids). The Parks department with our ever changing schedule. Of course to the Charlestown Patriot /Bridge for publishing our articles . Thank you all. Now the team prepares for National tournament play in the next few weeks. On a sad note the Townies would like to pass on there condolences to Dan Ryan and family. Dan is a former owner and player for the Townies , his parents passed away over the weekend . Dan's dad ,Carlos, was the greatest Townies fan during my time with the team. It saddens me too know that he wasn't there to celebrate this with us, but I know somewhere he is as proud as hell.