Young Falcons ready for season

Courtesy of the Sentinel and Enterprise:
By Sean Sweeney

FITCHBURG -- When the Fitchburg State College football team marches onto the Elliot Field to kick off its 2008 campaign this evening, second-year head coach Paul McGonagle hopes to build off a strong finish to last season's 3-6 record.

And with a fresh batch of recruits -- several of whom hope to make an immediate impact on this Falcons bunch -- the future can only get brighter.

McGonagle brought in 29 newcomers to the program this season.

"We finished (last year) on a good note," said McGonagle during Fitchburg State's Media Day at Elliot Field on Saturday. "We won our last three games in a row. Hopefully that'll give us some momentum heading into the season. ...

"It's a tough conference. ... But we want to go undefeated every week, go 1-0 every week. We're looking forward to putting a better product on the field. We want to win some games earlier than we did."

The Falcons host perennial New England Division III juggernaut Springfield College, with the hitting slated to begin at 7 p.m. It is the first of two matches between the two schools, with the second to take place next year at Springfield's Benedum Field.

McGonagle will look to senior quarterback Jim Miller and running back Marlon Thornton, two of the New England Football Conference's premier players last year, to stymie not only the Pride tonight, but the rest of the New England Football Conference as the schedule unfolds.

Miller, a part of former Falcons coach Pat Haverty's penultimate recruiting class, threw for 2,484 yards and 16 touchdowns last year. Thornton rushed for 16 TDs and just shy of 1,300 yards.

"Jim's a senior, and he's been one of our leaders during camp. He had a great camp, a great preseason. He's a captain and one of our leaders, and he finished No. 1 in the conference in passing, so he's doing something right," McGonagle said. "A lot of eyes will be on (Thornton) this year. Last year, he was kind of under the radar coming in, part of our recruiting class. Whoever is playing us is going to want to know where No. 1 is."

There is more to the team's offense than just two of the most productive players in the conference. The wide receiver corps is also a force to be reckoned with. Kenny Russell, Devon Jennings, Steve Austin and Carlos de la Rosa are all expected to find the pigskin between their paws.

"We have some other weapons," McGonagle said. "We do whatever it takes to win. One week, our tailback can run the ball 40-something times, and that's what it takes to win the game. We may throw the ball 40 times a game to win."

The Falcons' offensive line also looks solid, with most of the line returning. James Foltz, Anthony Cavossa, Bobby Brouillette and Bobby Johnson anchoring the front five.

Brouilette, a North Middlesex Regional product, has "had the best camp of them all," McGonagle said.

Defensively, Fitchburg State has room to improve. McGonagle freely admits the defense was not top notch in 2007.

"We have to improve, we were the worst in the conference," he said. "Are we going to be the No. 1 defense in the conference? I don't know. Our goal is to win. We think we have better personnel over right now, and we expect to be better."

Fitchburg State ran a 3-4 defensive set at the end of last year, helping the Falcons turn a negative season into a positive one.

"We're looking to improve off that. I think we had some success toward the end of last year running that. Each week, it'll be a different defensive gameplan," McGonagle said. "We had 11 new starters last year. A lot of those guys who started, they have a lot of experience. Some of those guys have kept those jobs, some have moved to backup (to provide depth)."

Steve Witherell returns to anchor the defensive side of the ball at defensive end, while Fitchburg's Logan Johnson -- who started 2007 on the offensive line as a right tackle -- will begin what is expected to be his first full season on defense.

Worcester's Eugene Boayke is also expected to be a force on the defensive line.

"(Johnson's) been great, and having the spring and camp at that one position, he's done well over there," McGonagle said.

Dale Whitiredge, who was a safety last year, Dale Francis and Alex Bourassa will anchor the linebacking corps, while two freshmen, Andrew Cavanaugh and Sean Golden, are looking to be explosive entities in the secondary.