The day greeted the 107^th football game between Middlesex and St. George’s with a sunny, 50 degree afternoon.  This edition of the rivalry pitted the size and running game of St. George’s against the speed and passing game of Middlesex. 

On their second offensive possession, St. George’s running game began to exert itself as they ate up yardage and moved the ball the length of the field for a first down on the MX 9 yard line.  After three more running plays, it was 4^th and goal from the 2.  In the play that set the tone for the rest of the game, linebacker Rob Zawada ’13 broke through the line, stopping the St. George’s tailback short of a touchdown and giving the entire MX team a huge emotional lift.   The MX offense took over from there, scoring its first touchdown on two long passes from QB Nick Andonian ’13, first to wide receiver Will Kreitler ’13 and then connecting with wide receiver Nick Widen for the 64 yard score.  Brendon Canavan ‘13 added the point after and MX had an early 7-0 lead.  The rest of the first period and the beginning of the second had both offenses swapping punts.  Then with 8 minutes left in the half the MX offense exploded, scoring three times on a 34 yard pass from Andonian to Widen, a 8 yard run by tailback Hasani Figueroa and another 42 yard connection from Andonian to Widen, giving MX a 26-0 half time lead. 

The MX defense: linemen Brendon Canavan ’13, Austin May ’13, Andrew Matos ’13, Ben Marchand ’15 and Steve Zawada ’15; linebackers Charlie Owen ’14, James Burr ’15, George Morris ’15, Rob Zawada ’13, Sam Carlin ’15, and Guy Kato ’15;secondary Will Kreitler ’13, Nick Widen ’13, Hasani Figueroa ’14, Nick Colangelo ’14, Drew Coash ’14 and Jack Lyne ’16 continued to play inspired defense throughout the second half to preserve the shutout.  The MX offense would score twice more in the game, first on a nifty 24 yard run by Figueroa and then a 6 yard off tackle run by Carlin.   Credit for MX’s offensive success on this day has to go to our young offensive line, led by seniors Rob Zawada and Brendon Canavan which included sophomores Steve Zawada, Walker Griggs, and Will Baxter with junior Charlie Owen stepping up big to fill the tackle spot of injured Ben Canniff ’15. The backfield tandem of Morris and Figueroa also deserves credit for key runs and their effective blocking on all our pass plays.   

For the season, the connection of QB Nick Andonian (over 2000 yards passing and 18 TD passes) to our two outstanding senior wide receivers, Nick Widen (10 TD receptions) and Will Kreitler (7 TD receptions), was essential to all our success.  Nick Andonian ends his career, as a four year starting quarterback with just shy of 5000 yards passing and 39 TD passes.  Our thanks must go to our 7 seniors whose leadership, not only on game day but every afternoon at practice, cannot be truly recognized in just one line of this article.   As our seniors leave with a job well done, we look forward to next season and all our returning players who will be stepping up to take their place as leaders of our team.