LEOMINSTER — The uphill battle continues for the Blue Devils.
For the third straight week, Leominster High was competitive against a tough gridiron foe. And for the third straight week, the Blue Devils walked off the field with a loss.
On Friday night, Leominster fell victim to a few mistakes at crucial times in a 27-21 loss to North Attleboro at Doyle Field.
Chris Hanewich scored twice for North Attleboro (2-1), which got out in front of Leominster (0-3) early and while the hosts battled, the deficit proved to be too much.
Trailing 21-7 at halftime, the Blue Devils made it interesting in the third, cutting the lead to seven as Ryan Ricker pulled in a 23-yard pass from a scrambling Osiris Lopez (14-of-25, 222 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions) near the middle of the quarter.
Daniel Thompson’s PAT cut the lead to 21-14.
But the Red Rocketeers came up with a big play of their own in the fourth as Bryce Kiser shook off a pair of tackles on a catch on third-and-14 and raced 28 yards to the end zone. The kick failed and North Attleboro led 27-14.
The hosts wasted little time in responding as Juan Miranda returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards, with Thompson’s kick cutting the lead to 27-21.
Leominster put itself in position to at least pull even late. Juan Roman-Cruz scooped up a North Attleboro fumble and returned it to the Leominster 45 with 2:26 left, trailing by six.
But an errant throw by Lopez found the hands of Kiser and the North Attleboro defensive back took a knee at his own 16 to end the threat.
After Hanewich opened the scoring for the Red Rocketeers with a 75-yard sprint down the visitors’ sideline late in the first, the Blue Devils responded with a scoring drive of their own to pull even.

Leominster capped the seven-play, 77-yard drive on the first play of the second quarter as Lopez found Juan Miranda in the middle of the field and the receiver slipped a pair of tackles for a 24-yard touchdown. Daniel Thompson’s point after was true and the Blue Devils pulled even at 7 with 11:52 remaining in the half.
From there, the Red Rocketeers turned it on to take a two-score lead to halftime. Quarterback Chase Frisoli put the guests ahead with a 1-yard keeper with 4:48 left in the half before Lopez’s second interception of the half gave North Attleboro another crack at the end zone with 1:20 remaining.
Ryan Bannon came up with the interception and took the ball to the Leominster nine. Two snaps and a false start later, Frisoli found Hanewich in the corner of the end zone for a 14-yard strike with 58 seonds left in the half and a 21-7 lead after Tyler Goyette’s kick.