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AUBURN, Mass. – The last time the Auburn High School football squad faced an offense with the same style as Grafton High School’s, the Rockets ended up cruising to victory against Shepherd Hill, 35-6. On Friday night, Auburn hopes to have the same success against Grafton’s wing-style running game.
“You don’t have to say much about Grafton. What they’ve done speaks for themselves,” said Auburn head coach Jeff Cormier. “They’re fundamentally solid, and they’re great at tackling in space.
“They’re just solid, solid football players, and we know we’re going to have our hands full on Friday,” Cormier added. “We’re going to have to get a couple of bounces and hopefully things go our way.”
The Oct. 26 game kicks-off at 7 p.m. at Auburn High School. Auburn is 7-0 this year with a 15-game winning streak. The Rockets have dominated every opponent, except for a tough victory against St. Peter-Marian High School early in the season.
On the other side, Grafton is having a solid season at 5-2. Four of the wins were shutouts against Nipmuc, Uxbridge, Leicester and Southbridge high schools, and last week, Grafton destroyed Oxford High School, 45-6. The Indians have lost close games to Shepherd Hill and Northbridge high schools, both formidable opponents with one loss each.
Grafton runs the wing-style running game “to perfection,” according to Cormier.
“It’s not an offense you can replicate in practice,” Cormier said. “They do it all the time to perfection, so I don’t think you can replicate it, as much as you can try to hold on when they come at you.”
After this week against Grafton, the Rockets will host Northbridge on Nov. 2. Northbridge suffered its first defeat all season against Shepherd Hill last week.
“The road doesn’t get any easier for us,” Cormier said. “The next few weeks we have real quality football teams ahead of us. The pressure on our kids is taking it one game at a time, and I’m sure we’re going to do that.”
Follow @rsobeyDV on twitter for updates throughout Friday night's game.
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