Connor Muldoon helps West Boylston weather two lightning delays in win over Northbridge

WEST BOYLSTON — Connor Muldoon and a monsoon.

The perfect 1-2 punch for the West Boylston football team on Friday night.

With Muldoon scoring four total touchdowns, and Mother Nature providing two separate first-half weather delays, West Boylston finally found its rhythm with a 24-point second quarter in a 51-13 win over visiting Northbridge during a wet and wacky season opener.

“It was a weird day,” West Boylston coach Mike Ross said. “I was just hoping we’d finish. I started getting nervous. I was hoping (the lightning) would stop, and we had another (delay), and I was like ‘Jesus, I wanted to finish the game.’

“Thank God it stopped.”

As lightning bolts filled up the background behind West Boylston Middle/High School, Muldoon rushed for a 29-yard TD to give the Lions a 6-0 lead with 6:15 in the first quarter.

Shortly after, the sky opened up.

With fans scrambling to their cars, referees to the press box, Northbridge to the school bus and West Boylston to the locker room, everyone in attendance waited nearly 40 minutes for rain and lightning to clear before play could start again.

Then, nine minutes after both teams resumed play on the field, nature struck again.

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“The delays were definitely tough going into the locker room and having to come back out here and stretch,” West Boylston senior captain Jamie McNamara said. “But we’re a physical team, we’re tough, we’re mentally tough, and we came out here and knew what we had to do, and we got it done.”

On the Lions’ first offensive play following the second delay, Muldoon scored on a 66-yard run as his team took a 14-0 lead. Three minutes later, teammate Jon Raus rushed for a 4-yard touchdown before a 17-yard TD scamper from Muldoon with 51 ticks remaining in the first half, and West Boylston led, 30-0, heading into the break.

“He was locked in,” West Boylston senior captain Luke Foley said. “I could tell before the game (Muldoon) was (going to) go off.”

And Muldoon didn’t waste any time putting the game on ice in the second half when the senior running back returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown.

“Every time I made a block, I turned around and saw (Connor) breaking tackles,” West Boylston senior captain Jake O’Brien said. “He was doing it all today.”

Sophomore Dominic Renzoni followed suit with a 34-yard TD run of his own during running time in the third quarter before Northbridge stopped the bleeding with a 13-yard TD run from sophomore quarterback Joel LaChapelle, the grandson of coach Ken LaChapelle.

“We’re just inexperienced, and like any inexperienced team, we’re trying to find our way,” said LaChapelle, who is in his 47th year coaching at Northbridge. “We’re trying to find a little depth and find our go-to guys, and the early part of the year is going to be very important for us.”

With the fourth quarter all but a formality, Ruas added his second rushing score for the Lions before Matt Coughlin scored a TD for the Rams to account for the final tally.

So if Mother Nature provided the lightning on Friday, what did you bring, Muldoon?

“Thunder,” Muldoon said. “We brought the thunder today as a whole team.”

“He’s fast, he’s strong, he’s smart,” said Ross, whose team threw the ball just once all game. “He’s everything you want in a running back.”

And West Boylson got everything it wanted on Friday — even if it took a little longer to get there. After all, the defending Division 7 Super Bowl champions don’t mind a little rainfall.

“We like that, we like rain, we like storms,” O’Brien said. “That’s what we’re about, just fighting through that stuff.”

“Rain is good for us, we’re a running team,” Ross said. “We like that, that’s why we wanted to finish the game.”

— Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44. 

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: West Boylston football weathers lightning delays to beat Northbridge