Ridge Football Drops Opener to Immaculata

The Ridge football team opened its 2011 season against archrival Immaculata in a game played under the lights Friday in Somerville.  Although Immaculata won the game 21-7, Ridge showed signs of many strengths and played hard until the final buzzer.

For a full photo gallery from the game, head here.

                              1st   2nd  3rd  4th  FINAL 

Ridge (0-1)              0     0     7      0     7  

Immaculata (1-0)     7     0     7      7     21

The physically larger Immaculata squad made Ridge work for every yard. Solid performances by halfbacks Rob Mullaney, Evan Skea and Mike Hilss kept the Red Devils moving offensively. First-year quarterback Nick Franzese, a sophomore, played a solid game at the helm, and had a few of the dropped passes been completions, the game result might have been different.

Mike Hilss had an outstanding game pulling down an interception and running in the lone Ridge touchdown before halftime.

The Ridge defense was consistent throughout and forced errors by the Spartans that kept the Devils in the game.

DEVIL OF THE GAME

Mike Hilss - Hilss had an outstanding night on both sides of the ball.  Mike had 5 rushes for 22 yards.  Hilss had 3 kickoff returns totaling 47 yards with an average of 16 yards per return. He also ran back 2 punts for 77 yards and a touchdown.  On defense, Hilss tallied 5 tackles and pulled down 2 interceptions for the Devils.

KEY PERFORMANCES

Nick Franzese — Quarterback Franzese was 4 for 12 passing and had 23 yards rushing. Defensively, Nick had 2 tackles and 4 assists. Evan Skea — Skea put up 65 yards in 10 carries and added another 33 years for 2 receiptions.  On defense, Skea had 4 tackles and 3 assists. Rob Mullaney — Mullaney led the Devils in rushing with 67 yards on 19 carries and had a pass reception for 3 yards.  Mullaney also had 2 tackles on defense. Tim Falato — Tim punted 5 times in the game for a total of 177 yards, with a long of 48 yards, for an average of 35 yards per punt.  Tim added a tackle and 5 assists on defense. Tyler Ord — Tyler led all tacklers with 9 and 3 assists. 

THEY SAID IT

"The kids played hard. I am very proud of them. They worked extremely hard to get ready for the season and they had a great week of practice. They put it all out there. That is all a coach can ever ask.  If a few plays went the other way, we might of come out on top.  We are going to get better every week and we will learn how to break through these types of games." — Ridge head football coach Bill Tracy