These 6 running backs are set to make an impact in Central Mass. football this season
As the Central Mass. football season approaches, the Telegram & Gazette will take a look at some players who should make an impact. Next up, running backs:
Miguel Borges
Senior, Marlborough
The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Borges is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
“We anticipate another big year from him,” Marlborough coach Sean Mahoney said. “Just watching him (in practice), he’s a little more athletic than last year. We’re excited about his potential.”
Last season, Borges carried 165 times for 1,061 yards and 17 touchdowns to help lead the Panthers to an 8-3 record and the Division 4 state quarterfinals.
Borges was the speed back and the graduated Nealon Stemple the power back in Marlborough’s balanced backfield.
“Miguel will run with a little more power this year,” Mahoney said, “but he’s mostly a slasher. He beats people with his athleticism.”
Mahoney said there are a couple of candidates to take on the second back role and split some carries with Borges, who is also a very talented receiver out of the backfield and a star cornerback.
“He will be the leader on offense and defense,” Mahoney said. “He has taken the role of leader for us. He is definitely a kid that other kids respond to.”
Kaiden Brochu
Junior, Bay Path
Injuries opened the door for Brochu to play as a freshman, and in his first game, he rushed for 151 yards.
“We realized we had something there,” Bay Path coach Cody Giampa said. “Sophomore year, we let him compete for the starting job, and he just took it.”
Last season, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Brochu rushed for more than 1,800 yards to rank second in Bay Path single-season history behind only Mike Salvaggio, the program’s career rushing leader. Brochu scored 22 touchdowns to lead the Minutemen to an 8-5 record and a spot in the State Vocational Large Schools Super Bowl.
“He’s a special football player,” Giampa said. “He’s a very instinctive runner who knows where the ball is supposed to be. He can see the play as he runs. He knows where the cuts are. He has great vision — that’s what helps him the most — and a mind for football. It’s not just ‘run through the gap as hard as you can.’ He understands what the play is going to look like as it unfolds.”
Bay Path has three running back positions, and Brochu can play all three.
Last season, Brochu had a five-touchdown performance against Greater New Bedford, and in the State Vocational semifinals, he rushed for 225 yards and two scores and caught a 12-yard touchdown pass.
Jamie McNamara
Connor Muldoon
Seniors, West Boylston
In 2022, McNamara and Muldoon helped lead the Lions to a great regular season, and once the playoffs started, this big-game pair took it to an even higher level.
“They went off,” West Boylston coach Mike Ross said.
In West Boylston’s four state tournament games, McNamara scored six touchdowns and Muldoon five, including a Super Bowl-record 91-yard TD reception, as the Lions captured the Division 7 championship.
McNamara and Muldoon, along with classmates Jonathan Ruas (who Ross says is the quickest player on the team) and Jackson Caramanica, who switched from tight end to running back, will lead the way again this year in West Boylston’s double-wing offense.
Last season, the bruising McNamara carried 142 times for 1,084 yards and 18 touchdowns, while the speedy Muldoon carried 56 times for 550 yards and 8 TDs.
“They complement each other,” Ross said, “and they are both very coachable.”
Ross said McNamara and Muldoon are constants in the weight room and that Muldoon will play a little bit bigger this season. In addition to the long TD reception in the Super Bowl, Muldoon scored on a 96-yard run in the quarterfinals against Wahconah.
In the Super Bowl, McNamara rushed for 123 yards on 15 carries and scored in the fourth quarter to help the Lions beat St. Bernard’s, 29-6.
Logan Mercer
Senior, St. John’s
Mercer had a very busy summer competing at college camps.
“He’s definitely looking to play at the next level,” first-year St. John’s coach John Vassar said, “and he’s had some good interest. The first few weeks of the season will really tell where the chips will fall.”
The 5-foot-10, 200-pound Mercer worked hard this offseason, Vassar said, on his lower body strength, his balance and his footwork.
“The biggest thing is his physicality,” Vassar said. “He’s a tough, strong kid with a good center of gravity. He looks for contact. He will be a guy who helps us wear down defenses.”
Mercer can also catch the ball out of the backfield.
“He’s a well-balanced running back,” Vassar said.
Mercer is an excellent student and a team captain.
“He has really taken a step forward not only in a physical aspect, but a leadership aspect,” Vassar said.
Vassar, a 2011 St. John’s graduate, replaced John Andreoli, his former coach, in January. Andreoli retired last December after a 19-year run that included six Super Bowl championships.
Vassar said Mercer and his teammates are doing a fine job learning the new offense.
“They are really smart kids, and they are picking things up quickly,” Vassar said. “We’re starting simple, but challenging them with concepts that they’ll take to the next level.”
Jarius Williams
Senior, St. Bernard’s
Williams, who helped lead Murdock to the Division 8 state quarterfinals last year, transferred to St. Bernard’s for his senior season and to join his four brothers, who also will suit up for the Bernardians.
Williams averaged 10.6 yards on 50 carries and scored 10 touchdowns last year at Murdock.
“He’s a very intelligent and a very physical runner,” St. Bernard’s coach Tom Bingham said. “He has quickness, speed and toughness.”
What really has stood out to Bingham, though, is Williams’ rapid grasp of St. Bernard’s offense.
“We literally just met him,” Bingham said, “and his mental capacity and understanding and absorbing everything, even the finer coaching points, were much further along than we thought they would be at this point. He’s a great teammate, and we’re excited to have him.”
The unique tandem of Damien Jones and Antonio Mancini combined for close to 3,000 rushing yards and 45 touchdowns last season as seniors while leading the Bernardians to the Division 7 state final.
“I don’t think we’ll ever replace that,” Bingham said, “but Jarius gives us a really great opportunity to be different.”
Senior Cole Blair, who ran behind Jones and Mancini the last three years, will have an expanded role in 2023.
“He worked hard to earn this opportunity,” Bingham said. “We’re looking forward to Jarius and Cole being a 1-2 punch for us.”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: These six Central Mass. running backs are primed for big seasons
