Images courtesy of Mitzi Vélez Lorenzana
At this point, it’s hard to believe that anything outside of championship games can motivate the Boston Renegades.
The regular season has simply become too easy for the four-time defending WFA Pro champs, with the latest example coming in the form of a 69-0 beatdown of the Tamba Bay Inferno in Revere on Saturday night.
Boston (5-0) is somehow still finding ways week-after week to bring its game to another level. The continuous pursuit of perfection is ultimately what this organization is chasing (and achieving) at this point, but the Renegades also had a special guest to help add a little more juice.
Now-retired Patriot Devin McCourty was a team captain at Harry Della Russo Stadium and spoke to the women pregame. He even broke down the DB’s during pregame warmups the same way he would on Sundays inside Gillette Stadium.
“I know what it’s like on game day, we had people coming in the locker room and no one wanted to hear what anybody had to say because this is what you do,” he told the team. “This is what you do. All week, you prepare with your teammates to look to the left and right and say ‘I’ve got your back for however long we gotta play,’ I’m just honored to be here. We’ve had games where all you have come, walked with out us for the coin toss and told us about championship, after championship, after championship…so from one champ to another, go dominate today.”
They listened. Boston jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead and a 48-0 halftime lead. Allison Cahill threw for 307 yards and five touchdowns. Katie Falkowski (8/84), Eight different receivers caught at least one pass from Cahill, including Chanté Bonds (5/94/1), Kara Ellison (3/69/2), Stephanie Pascual (5/66/1) and Adrienne Smith (3/48/1). Lauren Saulters (11/52), Heather Marini (3/40), Ruth Matta (4/36) and tutti Kussinen (5/35) all had rushing touchdowns.
“I truly am probably the grumpiest person out here, but today I actually had a lot of fun seeing him out here, seeing him talk to the team. It was just really, really fun,” said head coach John Johnson of Devin McCourty’s appearance. I’m a big fan, I’ve loved his play for years and I love watching him play. To have him out here affecting our team with his enthusiasm and energy was awesome. We achieved our goal, we won the game, obviously, we held them to zero. Particularly happy with our special teams performance.
“They did a good job, especially from our last game. They [Tampa] made some mistakes and we were able to capitalize on them. All in all it was a pretty good complimentary football game, offense, defense, and special teams. We got off really healthy and we’re looking to build on that for the rest of the season.”
Defensively, the Renegades forced multiple fumbles with Kara Gailiunas and Donny Fournier getting recoveries. Gailiunas also wears No. 32. making the big play that much more special for her given who was in the building.
“On special teams, I always say I have one goal, to get down field as fast as possible and get to the ball carrier. So, when the ball popped out, same mission, get to the ball, do what I had to do and come up with it in the end,” she said. “We all fought really hard. I had my teammates fighting to give me room to get on top of the ball. It was great…it was such an honor. It’s an honor for me to wear his number, 32, and it was an absolute honor to have him here, supporting us, cheering us on, giving us pep talks. I have nothing more to say other than it’s an honor.”
Boston has one more regular season game on the road against Pittsburgh next week before the real fun begins and Johnson won’t let his team look ahead, even though they absolutely can.
“We treat every night like it’s a national championship game,” he added. “It’s going to be the same mantra. We have to get better and then we have to get into the game plan, which is Pittsburgh. They’re a quality football club. They pose a lot of challenges in all three phases of the game. We’re going to have to be on top of our game to come out of there with a win.”
