ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Members of the St. Mary’s High School football team on a bus headed for Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and the super bowl.
By STEVE KRAUSE
Today is the day football teams from one end of Massachusetts to the other have planned for, and set as their goals, since the dog days of August.
There will only be 16 teams competing in eight levels of Massachusetts State Championship games, played over three venues. Two of them involve Item-area teams: St. Mary’s against East Bridgewater in Division 3A, and Marblehead vs. Falmouth in Division 2A.
Both of those games will be at Gillette Stadium. The Spartans and Vikings were set to begin the day with a 9 a.m. kickoff while the Magicians and Clippers will have to wait until 3:30 before they take the field.
Last year, St. Mary’s won the Division 5 North regional and played a memorable game with South regional champion East Bridgewater at Cawley Stadium in Lowell. The Vikings ran out to a 20-0 lead after only a quarter, but the Spartans roared back, and turned it into game before succumbing, 26-18. The Vikings subsequently lost the championship game to Northbridge.
The last time Marblehead played in a Super Bowl was in 2009 — a 12-6 loss to Bishop Feehan. When the Magicians played in the game, the state was still split into three geographical regions — East, Central and West — and there were a total of 18 games instead of the eight there are today.
The year 2009 was also coach Jim Rudloff’s first year at the helm.
The last time St. Mary’s played in the Super Bowl, the Spartans had to play at Curry College — a game St. Mary’s lost to Abington. The Spartans won the 2005 Super Bowl, but played the game at Arlington Catholic. So, this will be their first game at Gillette. They left Friday morning to spend the day practicing at Walpole High School and getting settled at the Hilton Garden Inn at Patriot Place in Foxborough.
Among Falmouth, Marblehead, East Bridgewater and St. Mary’s, only the Vikings have been defeated. They went into today’s game against St. Mary’s with an 11-1 record, having lost only to Division 3 state championship contestant Hanover.
In addition to the two games being played in Gillette today, Lynn’s Manning Field will be the venue for the Division 1 championship game between Xaverian and Everett at 1 p.m . Manning, which seats approximately 4,500, was the host site this season for the entire slate of MIAA North soccer finals, two state semifinal games, and two state final games.
Manning Bowl was the site of two Super Bowls in 2011, but has not had a postseason football game since. See accompanying information on changes in traffic patterns that will be put in place for the game.
Steve Krause can be reached at skrause@itemlive.com.