SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Western Massachusetts will be represented in the Division 1 state football championship game on Saturday, capping a truly dominant season for Springfield Central.
Central has been dominating this year, through the regular season and their playoff run to this point. They’re 10-and-1, the lone loss coming to a team from Washington DC early in the season, and are winning their games by an average of 43 points.
They will go for the four-peat Saturday afternoon against St. John’s Prep out of Danvers Massachusetts. The first two were in Division 3 back in 2018 and 2019. Then last year, the state bumped them up to the big time, Division 1, and they smashed it, running straight to another title.
This year, their league opponents didn’t put up much of a fight, and the tournament hasn’t been much tougher. They’ve put up 60, 56, and 54 points in the first three rounds of the tournament, winning their three games by an average of 40 points.
Their opponents, St. John’s Prep, had a similarly dominant season but was only able to post one 50-point game compared to Springfield’s eight (including three 60-pointers). St. John’s won their playoff opener by 40, and their quarterfinal by 48-to-14 and took out last year’s runner-up, Central Catholic, 28-to-7.
This is technically an unlikely matchup, Springfield was the four-seed in this year’s tournament, and St. John’s in the seventh seed. The school is hosting a sendoff ceremony Saturday morning as the team makes the journey to Gillette Stadium. It’s a 12:30 kickoff Saturday afternoon against St. John’s Prep, who is 10-2 this season.