Pierre breaks game open; Stikeman scores twice
Published in the September 16, 2019 edition.
BELMONT — It’s one win that sort of feels like two.
After dropping their season-opener to Greater Lawrence 16-14 on Sept. 6, the Warriors had two options heading into practice last week: Use it as fuel or let it crush their season.
The Warriors emphatically chose the former, putting together a strong week of practice and translating that into a 21-10 road victory over Belmont on Friday night to move to 1-1 on the young season.
Head coach John Rafferty was especially impressed with the defense, who bounced back in week two to largely shut down Belmont’s spread offense.
“The defense improved tremendously,” said Rafferty. “We put in a lot of work during the week and did a nice job of slowing them down.”
The defensive line was especially strong. Led by two captain defensive ends in Liam Cosgrove and Chris Miller along with brothers Taaj Andrews and Sharieff Andrews as the tackles, the Wakefield four were un-blockable for most of the game. Coach Rafferty was also quick to give a nod to the linebackers, especially Danny Hurley and Eli Gosselin-Smoske.
It was their pressure that set the tone for the defense.
Senior Wesley Pierre capitalized on that pressure by coming down with his first of two game-changing plays in this one.
Pierre got his second interception of the season during the second quarter and returned it down to the Belmont 10-yard line.
Junior running back Tucker Stikeman later converted for his first of two rushing touchdowns. This one was a 5-yard carry that turned into a 7-0 lead after a Hurley extra point.
It was just the start of a busy second quarter in which 24 of the game’s 31 points were scored.
Belmont’s Hampton Trout connected on a 36-yard field goal to trim the lead to 7-3.
That’s when Pierre decided it was a good time for another gamebreaker, this time on the ensuing kickoff.
Catching a deep kick at his own 5-yard line, most players would set their sights on getting out to the 20 or so to give his offense (or in this case for the Warrior quarterback, himself) a chance. Instead, Pierre broke loose and ripped down Harris Field for a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
“Wesley Pierre was really dynamic for us today he made a lot of big plays,” said Rafferty who was also impressed with Pierre’s tackling from the the safety position throughout the entire night.
Belmont responded with an electrifying play of their own as Chad Francis took a run 83 yards for a touchdown to finally bring to an end a wild second quarter as Wakefield took a 14-10 lead into the break.
The Warrior defense locked down in the second half, and shut out the home team, taking a huge “W” back to Wakefield.
Stikeman’s second touchdown run came from nine yards out in the third quarter. Hurley hit his third point after for another perfect night of kicking.
Stikeman deserves plenty of credit, stepping up as the starting running back and filling in for the injured Aidan Sweeney. The offensive line certainly deserves a nod as well.
But it was Pierre’s heroics and the overall work of the defense who won this game.
The Warriors will now have the unique opportunity of getting a bye week. Their next game is Friday, Sept. 27 in Stoneham. It will be a challenge to stay focused for 14 days, but Wakefield can catch their breath this week and ease into more strong weeks of practice to get ready for an always talented Spartan team. Stoneham dropped their opener to Bishop Fenwick 35-14 on Sept. 6. They took their bye week last week and will host Arlington this Friday at 6:30 p.m.
