West Boylston regroups after wild start, runs past Clinton to remain undefeated

WEST BOYLSTON — The West Boylston football team had jumped to a 4-0 start without much of a challenge and hadn’t faced any significant on-field adversity.

Thursday afternoon, the Lions, who longtime coach Mike Ross repeatedly refers to as “tough,” proved that label did not apply to just in the physical sense.

Visiting Clinton was up to the challenge of an early track meet and took a 13-8 lead over West Boylston during a chaotic opening quarter, but the Lions regrouped, refocused and wreaked havoc the rest of the way in a 53-19 win.

More: Hometeam Central Mass. high school football standings, leaders

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West Boylston, the defending Division 7 state champion and current No. 1 team in the Division 8 power rankings, improved to 5-0 and seem a virtual lock to again get to Gillette Stadium in December.

The Gaels, who had won three straight entering the game, fell to 3-2, but appear to have the talent and the remaining schedule strength to be one of 16 teams from across the state that will earn a berth in the postseason.

“It’s always a big game (versus Clinton),” Ross said of WB’s rival from just a few miles down the street. “Give Clinton credit. They came out to play. We’re in pretty good shape, so in the second half, we came out and played hard.”

The game’s opening few minutes were about as wild as any in recent Central Mass. history.

West Boylston’s Jon Ruas returned the game’s opening kick 85 yards for a score. Not to be outdone, Clinton’s Axel Ramos returned the ensuing kick 86 yards for a touchdown that cut the Lions’ lead to 8-6.

The matching big plays continued as Clinton’s Ethan Frisch intercepted a pass and brought it to the end zone from 15 yards. Then in a moment of “you gotta be kidding me,” West Boylston’s Connor Muldoon came up with a 26-yard pick-six.

Less than six minutes into the game, West Boylston had a 16-13 lead, and neither offense had scored a touchdown or registered a first down.

“We got off to a slow start, and we knew Clinton was going to come out and play physical, tough football,” said West Boylston senior J.J. McNamara, who had three conversion rushes and was a disrupter on defense, making several tackles in the Clinton backfield. “We had a good second half, everyone’s healthy and we got the win.”

West Boylston got a huge day from senior Jackson Caramanica, who rushed for two touchdowns. Ruas, in addition to his kick return touchdown, also found the end zone twice on the ground, and Muldoon caught a 49-yard touchdown pass from Luke Foley.

“All of us were so amped for this game, Coach Ross actually had a ‘cream puff-esque’ speech before the game,” Foley said, taking a good-natured shot at Ross, who famously and on-camera in 2015 informed his players pregame that the opposing coaching staff had compared his players to the dessert pastry. “I don’t think the score accurately depicts how close this game really was and how close of a battle it was.”

Clinton added a score in the second quarter when Matt Phillips connected with Troy Wiehn for an 8-yard score, but the Lions were in control at halftime with a 38-19 lead.

West Boylston has outscored its opponents by a combined 242-52 and is averaging more than 48 points per game.

—Contact Tom Flanagan at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tgsports.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: West Boylston remains undefeated after surging past Clinton