Beavers won four of their last five

By Chris Villani,

Sports Writer 

The Blackstone Valley Tech football team was young and relatively inexperienced this fall, but the Beavers turned around a slow start to win four of their last five games and get back to .500 on the season. BVT capped off its campaign with a 28-0 win over rival Nipmuc on Thanksgiving.

Head coach Anthony Landini said he saw signs of his team’s potential early on.

“We weren’t intimidated, we were just making mistakes,” he said of the start of the year. “Even when we were getting beat, they played all four quarters. We were playing complete games.”

Valley Tech had numerous players step up as the year progressed. Junior Xavier Salois caught two touchdown passes against Westboro, including the game winner in the final minute. The victory over the Division II program represented the highest division foe the Beavers had ever beaten. In addition to the win over the Rangers, Nipmuc picked up late season victories over Assabet and Bay Path. Landini said it was hard to believe that his team had once been 2-5.

Several players put together stellar campaigns. Nathan Harris was a standout on both sides of the ball. Brothers Lucas and Jay Greenstein turned up big on Thanksgiving. Lucas earned defensive MVP honors for the game, and his 4th down stop was a huge turning point in the game. Jay had two sacks and forced a fumble in the win over Nipmuc.

Sophomore quarterback Dylan Dean threw three touchdown passes in the win and senior captain Bryce Sheldon continued to be a workhorse in the backfield, a role he played throughout the year.

“We started off hot,” Landini said. “We got the early jump and were up 28-0 by halftime and then our defense stepped up. We got some big stops.”

The teams played in front of a sizable crowd on a pleasant Thanksgiving morning. BVT’s program is barely two decades old, young in an area where some rivalries stretch back a century or more, but Landini said he was pleased to see so many alumni at the game.

“Our program is still young, and with our bench so close to where the fans are, I was turning around and seeing a lot of former players,” Landini said. “We are starting to build up that network of former players coming back, and it’s really nice to see."