Winchester Football Unable to Complete Comeback

It's not the way Winchester wanted to start off their season.

Coming off an eight-game winning streak to finish out last year, playing on a new field, but the starting the 2010 season did not go exactly as planned. Winchester dropped its first game of the season Saturday afternoon to Stoughton, 14-8.

Winchester had its chances, but penalties – an illegal motion call early in the first half after the Sachems or recovered a muffed punt – or missed snaps, Winchester showed its youth throughout the game. At one point, late in the first half, Winchester drove to the Stoughton two-yard line, trailing by seven, only to have a snap go over quarterback's Greg Thompson's head.

But trying to break in eight new players on offense and defense takes time.

"We lost a lot of games from last year's team," said Coach Paul Sobolweski. "We made a lot of mistakes (Saturday). Stoughton's a good team, but we kind of gift-wrapped the game for them. It was a tough loss, but a good learning experience for the team."

Thompson, a senior is one of those new starters on offense. And while it took the offense a little while to get in sync, once it did, it became difficult to stop Thompson and the rest of Winchester's skill players.

In the end, the senior quarterback finished 10 of 14 for 135 yards and two interceptions and compiled 93 yards on the ground.

"Throughout this game he became a varsity quarterback," Soboloewski said. "He had some first-game jitters, but I told him we were proud of his effort. He's going to be a real good quarterback the rest of the year for us."

And even though Winchester fell behind 14-0 in the fourth quarter, the team continued to play every down, and that's just what Sobolewski teaches them.

"One of things we preach is to never give up," Sobolewski said. "When we lose we never quit. We talked about how today was 9/11 and the soldiers that are fighting can never quit, and that's what we tried to tall our guys."

With the Black Knights already up two touchdowns and driving for a third, senior defensive back, Craig Rogan picked off a tipped pass, giving the Sachems some life. But after driving to the Stoughton 26-yard line, the Black Knights forced an interception, and again seemed to have control of the game.

The Sachems defense held and the offense, led by Thompson, was able to drive down the field, 56-yards for a touchdown. Thompson had two big runs on the drive – 22 yards and 14 yards – and a big pass to senior Will Herbert to give the Sachems a first down on the Stoughton 19.

Senor running back, Rich Mpanga charged in from two yards out, giving the Sachems some more life. A two-point conversion pass that Herbert caught one-handed pulled Winchester within six.

The Sachems got the ball once more at their own 14 and with 20 seconds left, Thompson scampered down the right sideline 45 yards to the Winchester 40-yard line. But a Stoughton sack on the next play ended Winchester's comeback bid.

 "We'll get better as the year goes on," Sobolewski said. "This was a learning experience. We made some mistakes, but there's a lot of talent on this team. We'll get better."