AMESBURY – In a rematch of the 2023 Division 7 state title game, the Amesbury Red Hawks got their revenge against the Uxbridge Spartans two years later in the state quarterfinals, 34-13 at Landry Memorial Stadium.
Uxbridge won the 2023 game 42-16 and Amesbury head coach Colin McQueen said that his team knew how strong the Spartans were and that the veterans kept that previous matchup in mind.
“Uxbridge is an incredible football team with a great weight room culture, very well coached,” McQueen said. “If a couple plays go differently and they could be moving on instead of us, but we had some guys make some plays when we needed to. A lot of the seniors now were sophomores back when we played these guys in the Super Bowl and that whole playoff run, and were thrown into the fire. They’ve put in a lot of hard work, and now we’re so close to our goal.”
Amesbury scored on its first drive when junior running back Connor Scialdone found the end zone from 11 yards out; the two-point conversion failed to make it 6-0 with just over three minutes left in the first. After a goal-line stand, senior quarterback Justin Dube hit running back junior Joe Puleo for a 90-yard touchdown on a wheel route. The two-point run was successful to give the Red Hawks a 14-0 lead with nine minutes left in the second quarter.
In desperation mode, Uxbridge senior quarterback Shae Paxton heaved a 49-yard bomb to senior receiver Thatcher Sweeney to cut the deficit to 14-7 with 6:51 left in the half.
Scialdone took the following kickoff 82 yards all the way to extend the lead to 21-7. After a three-and-out, the Red Hawks got the ball back and went 80 yards in five plays, capped off when Dube connected with Celia on a 15-yard screen pass to find the end zone. Uxbridge was able to orchestrate a successful two-minute drive to go 63 yards when Paxton found Sweeney for a score for the second time, this time from 12 yards out to make it 28-13, which carried into halftime.
Amesbury opened the half with the ball and went 67 yards in seven plays with, Scialdone scoring from eight yards out to make it 34-13. This would be the last score of the game.
This sets up a quarterfinal matchup with Clinton, which defeated West Bridgewater 18-6.
“Every week it’s gonna be championship football. We have to be mistake free and clean. This is where you want to be in November. Clinton just upset a West Bridgewater team who we’ve seen in the playoffs before, so it’s going to be a battle. I feel like we’re a special team and are on a special journey,” McQueen said.
