NESPA Winner: Sports story, 2023

The Ghostwriter, Westford Academy, Westford, MA

WA Football defeated Lincoln-Sudbury 21-6 at home on Friday, Oct. 14, improving their record to 5-1 on the season.

WA dominated from the first snap of the game, opening up a huge gap to allow senior running back Anthony Rudiman to rush for a first down. WA continued to lean on the running game during their first drive as they methodically marched down the field. Then, facing a fourth down and goal, junior quarterback Jake Cullen completed a pass to Rudiman who powered through the defense to get into the endzone. After a successful extra point attempt, WA had a 7-0 lead.

With only a few minutes remaining in the first quarter, WA’s defense then forced a fumble on LS’s first drive of the game. LS managed to force WA to punt, ending the first quarter with WA still up 7-0.

The crowd began to feel the momentum shift as LS was putting together a great drive down the field. But then, senior wide receiver and cornerback Luke Fremault intercepted a pass in the endzone to give WA’s offense the ball back.

WA began to put together another clock-eating drive as they continued to rely heavily on the running game. After a few first downs, WA entered LS territory. Then, Cullen threw a deep ball on the money to Fremault for another WA touchdown to extend WA’s lead to 14-0.

“Offensively, we stuck with our run game. They couldn’t stop us,” Head Coach Bruce Rich said.

With WA in the lead, LS tried to put a drive together to get some points going into the half. With only a few seconds left in the half, the LS quarterback threw a Hail Mary to the endzone, but Fremault was there for another interception to solidify WA’s lead going into the second half.

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