LUNENBURG — As soon as the 2025 schedule for Fitchburg High football came out before the summer recently passed, the eyes of many easily saw the Red Raiders’ Week Three opponents, and those eyebrows went crooked. How would Fitchburg do against a team it had never played before?
Given the way the Red and Gray haven’t been able to accrue the wins in the last few seasons, the Lunenburg faithful must have certainly drooled at the opportunity to take down a historical interscholastic giant.
For the first time in Fitchburg High’s 132-yard gridiron history, the Red Raiders took on the Blue Knights in this sport Friday night, and it was host Lunenburg who picked up a famous David vs Goliath-like victory, a 35-18 triumph at the McCarron Field.
The win lifts Lunenburg to 2-1 on the young season, with a trip up Route 113 to Tyngsboro in store for next Friday night. Meanwhile, Fitchburg fell to 0-3 for the third consecutive season, and will head down Dudley way to take on Shepherd Hill Regional.
Lunenburg just dominated, thanks in part to a defense that yielded 10 Fitchburg first downs and 157 yards of Red Raider offense. But the Blue Knights were simply stellar offensively, as Matt Agnese and Rory Ferguson gave the hosts key points, and doing so in bunches, with 355 yards of offense buoying the Blue and White.
Agnese, whose father, Paul, played for FHS Hall of Fame coach Ray Cosenza in the mid-1990s, was simply unstoppable in the first half. The senior slinger was 8 of 9 for 150 yards passing with two scoring strikes to speedy receiver Ferguson, whose TDs made it 14-0 and 21-6, the second on a 63-yard TD pass.
Fitchburg had blitzed on the 63-yarder, forcing Agnese into throwing across the field to Ferguson. Ferguson threw a hook into the works, then turned on the afterburners and out-raced the secondary for the end zone.
Liam McKenna’s laser beam kicks added three first-half conversion kicks for LHS.
Lunenburg took the lead midway through the first quarter, following a short FHS punt.
After Agnese (19 of 21, 286 yards passing, 3 TDs) carried for a 16-yard gain down to the Fitchburg 3, he then handed off to Ferguson, who bull-rushed into the end zone on the next snap.
Then, on the second play of the second quarter, Agnese’s wobbler found Ferguson in single coverage for the score that capped off a seven-play, 77-yard scoring drive.
Fitchburg’s Jerome Best II is tackled by Lunenburg’s Rory Ferguson during Friday night’s game. (Sentinel & Enterprise / Gary Fournier)
Late in the first half, Fitchburg put together a solid scoring drive of nine plays and 59 yards that saw Jerome Best, who opened the drive with a 22-yard carry, snuck in from two yards away for the Raiders’ third score of the season.
On Lunenburg’s first possession of the third, the Knights, despite there false start penalties, ripped off 11 plays that saw Agnese mix things up before Ferguson, out of the wildcat with Agnese lined out to the left, score from four yards away to restore LHS’ three-touchdown advantage.
But on the next Fitchburg series, Best cut the deficit nearly in half as he found freshman wunderkind Cole Lashua with an 8-yard TD pass with 48 seconds left in the third.
The conversion pass failed, and FHS trailed, 28-12.
Yet after Lunenburg turned it over on downs, the Red and Gray cut the deficit to 10 as Best snuck in from two yards out.
Lunenburg answered immediately as Agnese connected with Collin Toomey for a 47-yard catch-and-run TD.