STONEHAM – Melrose and senior running back Mike Pedrini were just waiting for the opportunity to do something special last night on the road at Middlesex League rival Stoneham.
Bottled up all night, and with his team trailing 14-0 with 6:45 left on the clock, Pedrini rushed for a 51-yard and six-yard touchdown while also scoring on the game-winning two-point conversion rush to lift Melrose to a thrilling, 15-14 victory over the Spartans.
“A big theme of ours, regardless of the score, is to play four quarters,” said Melrose coach Tim Morris. “Our guys believe that they are never out of a game as long as they keep playing hard, and when we needed to feed someone the ball at the end, it was John Wayne-time for Mike (Pedrini).”
Melrose (4-2) struggled all night getting any offensive rhythm going against a stout Stoneham defense, and after the Spartans went 92 yards on 19 plays, a drive which was capped off by a nine-yard touchdown pass from Tre Pignone to Tim Russell, the Raiders found themselves down two scores with time winding down.
But after a short kickoff gave the Raiders the ball at their own 49, Pedrini took the handoff and went untouched 51 yards for a quick score – freshman kicker Chris Cusolito made it 14-7 with his successful point after kick. And when Melrose forced and recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the Stoneham 48-yard line, Pedrini went right back to work.
He ran for nine yards on first down before running the ball seven straight times for 33 yards to set Melrose up with goal-to-go from the six. And on his ninth run of the drive, Pedrini (16 carries, 120 yards) punched it in the end zone to cut the deficit to, 14-13, with 2:32 remaining.
After initially lining up to kick, Melrose called timeout and brought its offense back on the field looking to avoid a potential overtime. Pedrini then bulled his way in to put the Raiders up, 15-14.
The Spartans would advance as far as midfield in the final minute, but an incomplete pass from Pignone on fourth down sent the Melrose sidelines into celebration.
“Sometimes you get thinking, we came all the way back and I am putting a freshman kicker out there and he hasn’t done it a lot, so what the heck, let’s just give it to the beast again and punch it in,” Morris said.
Stoneham (4-2) grabbed an early 7-0 first quarter lead on a three-yard TD run from Christos Argyropoulos before using its run game to set up Russell’s fourth quarter score, but a costly turnover and a determined Mike Pedrini eventually snatched a victory from their grasp.
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