BELMONT — Being on the other end of a shutout last year, the Watertown High School football team had their sights set on Thanksgiving 2024. They accomplished their mission Thursday morning, beating Belmont 23-0 at Harris Field.
Dealing with rainy and chilly conditions, the Raiders relied on their ground game to power past the Marauders.
After suffering a defeat to the Marauders last year, senior co-captain and quarterback Gnai Concannon-Garvin, said he and his teammates “got our get back,” on Thursday
“It’s just a great moment. We beat Belmont!,” he said, adding. “The rain made it tough, but our run game was just dominant today.”
After coming up just short of the end zone in the first quarter, the Watertown capitalized on a Belmont fumble, and drove the ball from 21 yards out. Sophomore Peter Pavlidis took a screen pass from Gnai Concannon-Garvin and scored from 5 yards out to stake a 7-0 lead.
The first half ended 7-0, after Belmont missed a field goal as time expired.
Junior Patrick Paul McHugh found the end zone with 6:10 left in the third quarter on a 12-yard run. The Raiders went for two and led 15-0. That drive started with a short field, after another fumble recovery at the Belmont 34.
Sophomore running back Jayden Pineda scored on a 21 yard run with 3:50 left in the fourth quarter. Watertown’s final touchdown started on their own 40, and the Raiders ran nearly 6 minutes off the clock. A two-point conversion made it 23-0.
The convincing win is what first year Watertown Head Coach Joey Carroll has been working on with the Raiders.
“We are excited for the future for our program,” Carroll said. “We’ve been talking about making dominating the norm here, and I think the last two weeks we did so.”
The Raiders planned to use a run-heavy offense, with two running backs and a tight end. Carroll said the team only started using that formation in the second-to-last-game against Arlington Catholic (a 31-13 win) and on Thanksgiving.
Sending the senior class with a win was big for Carroll.
“The seniors are awesome. I think that these senior have a special part in my heart because it is our first senior class ever,” Carroll said. “We have 13 of them this year, I’m going to miss them to death. They are going to be part of the whole process moving forward.”
One senior got on the field for the first time this season at the end of the Thanksgiving game. Austin Jasset suffered a season-ending injury in the first preseason scrimmage against Waltham.
“I love that we could get Austin out there on the last snap to go into victory,” Carroll said. “He came up to me (Wednesday) with the idea I said absolutely. … He’s such a great kid. He’s battled through such adversity in his life.”
After the game, the Raiders lifted the trophy awarded to the winner of the Watertown-Belmont game, first handed out in 2022 at the game played at Fenway.
“It feels great to be with my boys, beat Belmont, and hoist the trophy,” said Concannon-Garvin. “We worked so hard for this. We’ve been waiting for this, and we did it!”