Week 3: Gloucester 35, Winthrop 7 – Deep trouble – Stocked Fishermen ease past WHS

By Joseph Domelowicz Jr.

For the Transcript

The Gloucester Fishermen were just too big and too disciplined for Winthrop to handle this year, as the Vikings went on the road to Gloucester and lost 35-7, falling to 1-2 on the young season.

“The best way I can describe it, is to say that (Gloucester) is like we were in 2006 (when the Vikings won the Division II Super Bowl),” said head coach Sean Driscoll. “There were some things we did well, but not good enough. But that’s why we play all of these (NEC Large) games against bigger, deeper teams. We are trying to get better before we get into our division schedule and, I think these kinds of games help us do that.”

Driscoll noted that the Vikings will face another stiff test this week, when they play Lynn Classical at Miller Field on Friday night. The Rams, he said will probably provide Gloucester with a tough test when those teams play each other in week 9.

“I think that, having seen them on tape and now played them live, Gloucester is one of the five best teams in the state,” said Driscoll. “Classical isn’t as big as Gloucester, but they are deep and talented and I think they are going to be a real test for the Fishermen.”

The Gloucester duo of Alessandro D’Angelo and Connor Ressel combined for four of the Fishermen’s five touchdowns, with D’Angelo scoring on runs of 35 and 40 yards and Ressel scoring from 48 and five yards respectively.

On the Winthrop side of the ball, senior quarterback Will Milano connected with receiver Robert Deeb on a 50-yard scoring play, that briefly tied the game at 7-7, but from there the game belonged to the Fishermen.

“We went into the half down 22-7 and getting the ball to start the second, so we had some hope that we could stay in the game if we got some breaks, but their defense was just really fast and it gave us trouble all game.”

Junior running back Nick McCarthy, who torched the Salem Witches for 200-plus yards rushing in a week one win, was held to just 37 yards on 16 rushes and he added another eight yards on two passes from Milano.

Milano overall completed four of 10 passes for 76 yards, the one touchdown and one interception.

In addition to being the team’s offensivee, Deeb earned the defensive distinction for the third week in a row, as he was named a co-winner of the Black Shirt Award, given each week to the team’s best defensive player, though this week he shared the honor with McCarthy.

Rounding out the offensive statistics for the game were J.P. Doherty who rushed seven times for 16 yards, Chris Dtrangie and Milano who each rushed twice for seven yards apiece and Joe Clougherty who rushed once for five yards.

Senior running back Frank Ambrosino, who missed his second game with an injury, is hoping to return in the next week or two.

Other impressive defensive starters included Milano, Doherty and Barker.

“Obviously, we don’t as a team feel good about losing, but we know that we are in the toughest part of our schedule,” said Driscoll. “Fortunately, we came out of the game pretty healthy, our kids are back at practice, working hard to try and beat Classical this week and we’re going to keep working to improve week to week.”

Driscoll even said that his team has high hopes of finishing the ‘Large’ part of their schedule on an upswing and are hoping to add wins against Classical and Peabody in the next two weeks to head into their division schedule on a positive note.