Everett High’s first state tournament football game since 2022 lasted exactly as long as it was supposed to and ended the way the seeding said it would. Third-seeded Central Catholic beat the No. 14 Crimson Tide 41-20 Friday night at Lawrence Veterans Memorial Stadium in the first round of the MIAA Division 1 playoffs.
Central Catholic junior Cody Arsenault ran for 202 yards and four touchdowns, according to the Boston Globe, and quarterback Caden Smith threw for two more, the New England Football Journal reported. “It feels so good to get it,” Arsenault told the Journal afterward. The Raiders, 5-3 in the regular season against a schedule of Catholic Conference and out-of-state opponents, move on to a quarterfinal against No. 6 Xaverian at home next Friday, November 13, at 6 p.m. Xaverian beat Everett 53-6 on September 18, the Tide’s only loss before Friday.
Everett scored three touchdowns. Neither the MIAA’s bracket page nor the Globe’s roundup names Everett’s scorers, and the district’s broadcast of the game had not been posted with a box score as of Saturday morning. We will add them when the school or the paper publishes them.
The season
The Tide finish 7-2. After the Xaverian loss in week two they won six straight, all of them in the Greater Boston League, and took the league title at 5-0 with two one-point escapes in the last two weeks: 27-26 over Somerville on October 23, when they knocked down a two-point conversion pass with 50 seconds left, and 20-19 at Lynn Classical on October 30. Superintendent William Hart told the School Committee on Monday that the playoff berth was the program’s first since 2022 and credited head coach Rob DiLoreto and his staff.
The seeding tells its own story about how the MIAA ranks a Greater Boston League schedule. Everett, at 7-1, was slotted 14th in a 16-team field, behind eight teams with three or four losses, among them Central Catholic at 5-3, Xaverian at 4-4, Franklin at 6-2, Andover, Haverhill and Leominster at 5-3, and Natick and Shrewsbury at 4-4. The power rating rewards strength of schedule, and the Catholic Conference and Merrimack Valley teams Everett drew carry more of it than the GBL does. The result was a road game against a team that had already played St. John’s Prep, Xaverian and the Catholic Conference every week.
The district streamed the game on the Everett Public Schools YouTube channel.
The regular season is not over. The playoff loss sends Everett to the non-tournament schedule, and the Thanksgiving game is at Waltham on Thursday, November 26.
Elsewhere in the Division 1 bracket, No. 1 St. John’s Prep beat Weymouth 35-6, No. 2 St. John’s of Shrewsbury beat Brockton 58-18, No. 9 Andover upset No. 8 Franklin 56-21, No. 10 Haverhill upset No. 7 Leominster 34-28, No. 4 Wachusett beat Shrewsbury 49-14, No. 5 Springfield Central shut out New Bedford 47-0 and Xaverian shut out Natick 49-0.
Girls soccer: the season that got them back
A few hours earlier and 10 miles north, the girls soccer team’s first tournament game in 15 years ended 4-0 at No. 31 North Andover’s Walsh Stadium in a Division 1 preliminary-round game. Everett went in as the No. 34 seed at 9-4-5, North Andover at 7-7-4. North Andover plays No. 2 Wellesley on Monday at 4:30 p.m.
“Congratulations girls on a historic season,” the athletic department posted with the score.
The program’s last playoff appearance was in 2010, under the old sectional format, the Everett Independent reported. Fifth-year head coach Dom Persuitte told the paper that getting back was his top goal since taking over. School Committee member Jeanne Babcock, whose daughter played four years on the team, told the committee Monday that she was at the clinching game, which went to penalty kicks.
The team went six straight games without a loss in October, three of them shutouts, before a 4-0 loss to Medford on October 22; the GBL Cup consolation games followed. Goalkeeper Julianna Rivera recorded her eighth shutout of the season in a 0-0 senior night tie with Lowell on October 20. The seniors honored that night were captains Kayla Andrade and Sofia Arana-Quintanilla, who Persuitte said “played lights out.” The Independent’s coverage also singled out Odilas Sandoval, Mel Ribeiro, Bella Mitrano, Jasmine Morias, Brianna Santos and Gissell Lemus during the stretch run.
Everett finishes 9-5-5 counting the tournament game.
Our October 31 story covers the two one-point football wins, and the School Committee story has Hart’s and Babcock’s remarks on both teams.
