BURLINGTON – Wild. Insane. Pulse-pounding. Unbelievable. Just a few words that folks will use to describe the all-timer between 10th-seeded Wayland and seventh-seeded Burlington in the MIAA Division 4 Sweet 16 on Friday night. Wayland came up with a 4th-&-goal stop from the 14 to preserve a 48-44 win in the closing seconds after Burlington had seemingly scored a go ahead touchdown two plays before, but it was negated due…

By Mukala Kabongo NEFJ Staff METHUEN — Shane Eason put on another fantastic performance as eighth-seeded Methuen got the best of ninth-seeded Franklin, 35-21 in the opening round of the D1 playoffs on Friday night. This season for Methuen has constantly been called the Shane Eason Show. The senior running back has just been a nightmare for defensive coordinators. Coming into this game, Eason had totaled 1,431 rushing yards and…

By Jared Keene NEFJ Staff ATTLEBORO – Make no mistake about it, Bishop Feehan picked the right time to be playing its best football of the season. Forget for a moment that the Shamrocks have won eight straight after dropping their first game back in week one. Feehan’s last three games – going back to week seven after a bye in week eight – have seen the Shamrocks beat three…

By Tyler Amaral NEFJ Staff SANDWICH – Eighth-seeded Sandwich ran for 342 yards as a team and held off a late St. Mary’s rally to win 20-15 in a Division 6 first round matchup. Sandwich (8-1) advances to play top-seeded Hudson next week. No. 9 St. Mary’s drops to 7-2 on the season after starting 7-0. Clinging to a 20-15 lead, Sandwich had a chance to ice the game with…

By Paul Vozzella NEFJ Staff LAWRENCE – It was a tale of two halves Friday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium. It wasn’t easy at first, but fifth-seeded Central Catholic held serve at home against the 12th-seeded Weymouth Wildcats, winning 35-13 in the first round of the MIAA D1 playoffs. The game got off to a slower start as both teams moved the ball without the successful end result of putting…

By Andrew Guindon NEFJ Staff SPRINGFIELD – Friday night, the Springfield Central offense was too much for Natick to handle as the Golden Eagles defeated the Redhawks in the first round of the MIAA Division 1 playoffs, 34-14. No. 7 Springfield Central improved to 8-1, while No. 10 Natick fell to 7-2. “I feel good, mostly because I get to spend another week with these guys, and we get to…

DARTMOUTH – Going into it’d Division 3 first round matchup against the defending Super Bowl champs on Friday night, Dartmouth had a chip on its shoulder. The Indians wanted to knock out the reigning champs, and did so in dominant fashion with a 32-20 blowout victory over the Wildcats. Dartmouth (7-2) will now face third-seeded Mansfield next Friday in the quarterfinals. Milton fell to 3-6). “All of our guys were…