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Windham advances in laugher

WINDHAM – At many high schools, kickoffs are an after-thought. At Windham High School, they are lethal weapons.

Maybe not as punishing a weapon as, say, 205-pound wrecking ball Victor Pizzotti, but dangerous, very dangerous.

In a blink yesterday, the top-seeded Jaguars turned the Division 2 North quarterfinal into a blowout with a 31-0 second quarter barrage. Windham’s quirky cacophony of kicks played a pivotal role as the Jags recovered two of the well-positioned onside boots to keep the Hollis-Brookline offense off the field for more than six straight minutes. The Cavaliers didn’t get a chance to step to the plate, and Windham rolled into the semis, 52-7.

Saturday, the Jags will host No. 4 Plymouth for a shot to host the Division 2 championship game.

“The kids came out fired up. They know what it means in the playoffs, any given time, it can all be over,” said Windham coach Bill Raycraft. “We have 9 or 10 different kicks. We base it on what we see on film and how they line it up. We have a kicker in Chris Burke who can put the ball in the end zone, but we know we can have opportunities to get the ball back.

“We do that and it puts pressure on the other team. Burke probably has 6 or 7 kickoffs in his repertoire, and we have a couple other kickers who pitch in too. That’s all he does. He’s a good-sized kid, we put him through the drills, tackling and that, but he likes to specialize in the kicking. And as a sophomore, he’s only going to get better at it.”

Normally your basic 7-for-7 PAT day, tossing in a 22-yard field goal would be worthy of a helmet decal or two.

Yesterday, sophomore kicker Chris Burke might have lobbied for the game ball.

“It’s quite difficult to keep up with all the different kicking maneuvers. We always seem to have something up our sleeve to fool the other team,” said Burke, who flipped from soccer to football in the ninth grade. “I’m a kicker, but in the game of football, the kicker is a crucial part of the team.”

Burke is now 59 of 62 in PATs with three field goals.

Meanwhile, anytime Windham had the ball, it was in pretty able hands with Pizzotti and company, chewing up a team total of 342 rushing yards, despite gearing things down in the running time of the second half.

Pizzotti battered his way for four TDs in the win, carrying 16 times for 149 yards. Parker Belsky (12-84) and Jake Aleksa (9-63) added to their personal highlight reels as well.

Now all Windham’s sights turn to 8-2 Plymouth. The last time the Bobcats made their way down to these parts, they came into Jaguar country and pounded Windham, 41-7, back in September of 2013.

That was a point Raycraft impressed on his team as they left the turf here victoriously with step one of the playoffs behind them.