Pioneers, Devils renew rivalry.

Byline: Bill Doyle

Everyone on the St. John's football team wants to beat Leominster when the two Central Mass. high school powers meet at 1 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Field in Shrewsbury, but Sam Norton has some extra incentive.

Norton, a starting middle linebacker and one of St. John's four captains, lives in Leominster. One of his good friends, Derek Houde, plays fullback and linebacker for Leominster, and Norton knows many of the Blue Devils.

"So this is a really special rivalry for me,'' Norton said. "I always have this one marked off on my calendar. I respect (Leominster High coach Dave) Palazzi as a coach a lot. It's a lot of fun to play against him. He's one of the smartest guys we play against all year.''

Palazzi respects Norton, as well.

Norton's grandfather, Ralph Caisse, was Palazzi's physical education teacher at Leominster High in the 1980s and served as the school's athletic director. Norton's mother is good friends with Palazzi's family.

In each of the past three years, St. John's and Leominster have played each other twice, once during the regular season and again in the postseason for the Central Mass. championship.

Leominster swept the first four of those games, including two Central Mass. Division 1 championship games, to stretch its overall winning streak against the Pioneers to five, but St. John's finished on top in the most recent matchup, a 51-42 victory last November at Leominster's Doyle Field to capture the Central Mass. Division 2 title.

The 5-foot-9, 210-pound Norton took some heat from friends in Leominster during the five-game losing streak against the Pioneers, but he hasn't heard much grief lately.

"They don't like to talk about it as much anymore,'' Norton said.

Entering Saturday's opener, St. John's is ranked No. 1 in the T&G Hometeam Media Poll and Leominster is No. 3.

"I don't like the college football thing,'' Norton said, "where you start off with a low-level opponent just to get things rolling. I like to start off the season with a bang and no better team to do that with than Leominster.''

"There's a lot of history to this game,'' St. John's co-captain Nick Calvano said. "A lot of emotion goes into this. Every time we're in the offseason, we're always thinking about Leominster in the back of our minds. We never stop thinking about them.''

St. John's returns four starters on offense and seven on defense from a team that lost to Mansfield, 28-14, in the Division 2 state championship game last year at...