‘I wouldn’t want to go out any other way’: BVT comes back to beat Nipmuc in thrilling Thanksgiving rivalry game

MILFORD — The Battle of Pleasant Street had a new location — and date — this year.

But still the same traditional fun.

Instead of having football players from Blackstone Valley Tech or Nipmuc Regional stroll across the street on Thanksgiving, the two programs located steps from each other in Upton made the near 7-mile drive to Milford High a day before the holiday.

Between a bad forecast, poor field conditions and a lack of lights, it made sense to add another wrinkle to the 15th edition of the Thanksgiving rivalry.

“I’ll play wherever. You know?” Valley Tech senior captain Alex Burgos said. “I’m just ready to play whenever. It’s really the final (game). That’s it. I’m ready to go wherever it is. Could be across the street, it could be 1,000 miles away, I’m there.”

Thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run from Burgos with 20 seconds left, BVT came back to beat Nipmuc, 35-31, on Wednesday night and returned home with the coveted “Battle of Pleasant Street” trophy in tow.

Just another tantalizing twist in the Turkey Day tradition. No matter the location or time, the neighboring schools are always down for a tussle.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about playing on Pleasant Street. It’s just about two rivals smashing heads wherever it may be,” Burgos said. “I wouldn’t want it to end any other way. This is it; this is how I wanted my high school football to end, right here.”

A budding rivalry

Josh Giancola moved to Upton when he was two years old. When his family bought their house, their backyard abutted the backyard of the Burgos family.

From there, a friendship budded between Burgos and Giancola.

“We pretty much did everything together when we were younger,” Giancola, 17, said.

On Wednesday, the two quarterbacks from BVT (Burgos) and Nipmuc (Giancola) squared off against one another in a Thanksgiving matchup 15 years in the making.

“It’s really just a full-circle moment,” Burgos said.

In the first 37 minutes, though, it was Giancola and the Warriors who got the better of Burgos and the Beavers.

A trio of touchdown passes from Giancola to senior wide receiver Logan DeMarzo, a field goal from senior captain Jacob Nagda, and a 5-yard TD run from Giancola, handed Nipmuc a 31-28 lead with 3:13 left in the fourth quarter.

But then, the Beavers (who received three previous rushing touchdowns from senior Jeremiah Thomas) got down to business.

A timely backwards pass from Burgos to fellow captain Alex Vosburgh, who then hit senior Ryan Rezek up the left sideline with a pass for a first down (on third down), put Valley Tech inside Nipmuc territory.

Following another first down, and then a short run from Burgos, the four-year BVT quarterback completed a pass to senior captain Nick Whitlock to set up a third-and-2 from the 13-yard line with 31 seconds to play.

After already calling a backwards pass, onside kick and fake punt, the Beavers dialed up one more trick play as Burgos flipped the ball backward to Whitlock, who then flipped it backwards to a streaking Vosburgh.

The BVT senior, who stepped in at quarterback the past few years when Burgos was sidelined, collected the ball, planted his backfoot and lofted a pass toward Rezek.

“I underthrew the ball like crazy,” said Vosburgh, who scored on a 20-yard TD run in the third quarter.

Still, the rangy Rezek came up with the catch. First down from the 1-yard line.

“Just jumped up and got the ball,” said Rezek, who was playing for the first time in over a month due to some balky knees. “And that’s it.”

A play later, Burgos followed blockers and barreled in for the score to give his team a four-point lead with 20 ticks to go.

Three incomplete Nipmuc passes later, the Beavers waltzed out of Milford with their fifth straight win over their Turkey Day rivals.

“To come back from behind on their last game of football is poetic,” BVT coach Anthony Landini said.

Valley Tech (6-5) now holds an all-time edge of 11-4 over Nipmuc (4-7) in this Thanksgiving rivalry.

“That last drive was called really well, and we just did what we could to hang on,” Nipmuc coach James “JJ” Royster said. “But great game all around on both sides.”

“It was a defensive coordinator’s nightmare,” Landini said, “and a great game all around.”

The ties that bind

As both teams practiced at their respective fields Monday afternoon, Royster sent Landini a picture of him peeking through the fence at Nipmuc to catch a glimpse of the BVT practice across the street.

The picture was followed by a phone call saying: Why don’t we skip the rain on Thursday and play right now?

“It’s one of those things that doesn’t matter. We’re ready to go whenever,” Landini said. “When it comes to each other being across the street, we’re willing to play each other anytime. That’s the fun part about this rivalry.”

In 2002, Royster was a running back and defensive end at Northbridge High when he helped the Rams beat their Thanksgiving Day rival, Uxbridge, who Landini played for. Northbridge then beat Wahconah a week later in the Division 2 Central/Western Mass. Super Bowl.

“They were a buzzsaw,” Landini said.

Twenty-two years later, the pair of coaches lead two different programs from neighboring schools. After spending five years on staff at BVT, and then five more at Oxford, Royster took over as head coach at Nipmuc last season.

With many ties already connecting both programs, adding the Royster/Landini wrinkle has been fun the past two years.

“It makes for a good rivalry,” said Landini, who noted that Royster recently tagged him in a few friendly posts on Facebook. “He tries to grind my gears. … If you talked to us 20 years ago and said this (was happening), we’d probably laugh at you. It’s all in good fun.”

“(Landini is) one of my best friends. We’ve been going at it forever,” Royster said. “We have a great relationship. We probably talk once a week about football or family. Ant is a genius. I learned a lot from him.”

The Battle of Fountain* Street

As Nipmuc’s DeMarzo (offensive) and Nagda (defensive MVP), and Valley Tech’s Vosburgh (offensive) and Whitlock (defensive), collected their MVP trophies after Wednesday’s game, Landini and Royster stood next to each other at the 50-yard line to cheer on their players.

Once each team broke their postgame huddle, players from both teams mingled on the turf field in Milford to soak up a few final moments on the gridiron together.

The rivalry game may have looked and felt a little different this fall, but the Thanksgiving tradition of the Battle of Pleasant Street lives on.

Just this year, it happened on Fountain Street in Milford.

“It was a really good, well-fought game,” Giancola said, “and even though we lost, I think we played our hearts out.”

“A great game of football and probably the highest note I could’ve gone out on,” Burgos said. “It sucks it’s over now, but I wouldn’t want to go out any other way. I mean I love these guys; I love them forever.”

—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44. 

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Blackstone Valley Tech beats Nipmuc in Thanksgiving rivalry game 2024