Down by three scores at halftime, the Leominster High football team valiantly battled back against visiting Doherty on Saturday evening.
And while the Blue Devils were able to make a game of it early in the third quarter, they ultimately came up short in a 40-20 loss to the Highlanders at Doyle Field.
Down 21-0 at the break, Caeden Constant found Nathan Taylor on a 13-yard scoring strike to open the scoring for the Blue Devils early in the third and after recovering an onside kick, JC Cora punched in a short run to cut the Doherty lead to 21-14.
Santiago Rodriguez-D’Atri converted the point after following each touchdown.
Though Leominster was able to make it a one-score game in the third, Doherty (4-1) answered with a touchdown from Noah Callery — the fourth of his six in the game — and an interception of a Blue Devils pass.
Vo’Shon Dixon later scored on a short run for Leominster (0-4).
The Blue Devils are slated to close the Fall 2 season Thursday when they welcome Shepherd Hill to Doyle Field.
Fitchburg 35, Westboro 11: The Red Raiders (3-1) saw Devon Barisano score twice on the ground once on a pass from Monty Graham, who also found Xavier Macherie on a 25-yard scoring strike. Anthony Oquendo added a rushing touchdown in the victory.
St. Bernard’s 42, West Boylston 19: Tyler Thibodeau and Damien Jones continued to be an unstoppable duo for the Bernardians (5-0), as each scored three touchdowns in the 100th victory of Bernardians head coach Tom Bingham’s career. Thibodeau scored on runs of 11, 53 and 12 yards, while Jones found the end zone on runs of 74, 35 and 21 yards.
Vaughn Randle was a perfect 6-for-6 on point after tries in the win.
Nashoba Regional 29, Tantasqua 8: Josh DiGeronimo scored twice and Connor Salmon and Ben Silvester each added a TD for Nashoba (5-0) in its season finale.
St. Paul 39, Monty Tech 6: Cenceir Mills pulled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from T.J. Farr for the Bulldogs (0-4) in the second quarter of Saturday’s loss.
College track and field
The Fitchburg State men’s and women’s track and field teams had several standout performances at the Jerry Gravel Invitational, hosted by Westfield State University.
For the men, Chris Morales took first in the 400 (50.71) and fourth in the 200 (23.14), while Nate Felix was second in the 400 (51.89).
Taban Manyok won the 800 (1:59.14) and the 1,500 (4:12.09), an event the Falcons took the top three spots in, courtesy of strong finishes by Brian O’Sullivan (second, 4:14.82) and Nick Sachetta (third, 4:15.97). Carson Doody claimed the triple jump (12.97 meters) and Nicholas Zeoli won the discus (39.55 meters) and was second in the shot put (12.60 meters).
Matt Catarius claimed third in the 5,000 (17:57.09), Ben Sacramone was third in the 100 hurdles (17.79), fourth (1.65 meters) in the high jump and fifth in the 400 hurdles (1:06.19), while Nick Sachetta was third in the 400 hurdles (1:04.97).
Cody Suderland was second in the pole vault (3.35 meters) and Rodny Bonhomme was second in the discus (39.04) and fourth in the hammer throw (36.33).
On the women’s side, freshman Abby Murphy took first in the 800 (2:31.28) and the 1,500 (5:12.34), while Olivia Mullins took second in the 5,000 (20:53.62) and Darcy Lally was second in the pole vault (2.45 meters) and sixth in the 100 hurdles (24.04).
Brianna Young was fourth in the shot put (9.81 meters), fourth in the hammer throw (29.77 meters) and fifth in the discus (22.28 meters), while Courtney Brouillet took fourth in the 400 hurdles (1:28.94) and Kailey Norton claimed fourth in the discus (27.22 meters).
