RallyNorth.net

Masconomet football coach Jim Pugh moved to Massachusetts in 1973, but he could never abandon his New York roots.

Pugh, 57, grew up on Long Island and played football and basketball at Chaminade High School in Elmont, N.Y., where he was the All-Long Island quarterback his senior year (1967). He earned a basketball scholarship to Hoftstra University, where he also played football.

Running back Mike Leavitt is back, the Raiders are coming off a one-point win over Dracut, and a big game against Merrimack Valley Conference power Billerica is on tap. These are heady times for Central Catholic coach Chuck Adamopoulos.

1.Gloucester (4-0): Good road win against a Division 1 opponent keeps the Fishermen rolling. Key contest with fellow unbeaten Swampscott looms this weekend. Last week: 1

Every Monday RallyNorth.net will salute bone-crunching linebackers, elusive running backs, immovable linemen and rocket-armed quarterbacks from the 37 area high school football teams. We've dubbed them Power Players and you won't want to miss who the best and the brighest were from the weekend's schoolboy gridiron action.

It's the story of two football programs and how players and coaches are dealing with losing.

More than a month ago, the Triton football team opened training camp hoping to carry the momentum of last year's Thanksgiving Day victory over Pentucket.

Carlos O'Donnell of Salem had no reason to think he'd ever be playing quarterback and kicking field goals for the Pingree School.

To O'Donnell, it was a moot point three years ago because the private school in Hamilton didn't even have a football program. A product of the Salem Youth Soccer program, O'Donnell just assumed he'd play soccer for four years in high school.

Football is in Doug Chernovetz's blood.

Growing up in Connecticut, Chernovetz learned the sport from a man who quarterbacked the Syracuse Orangemen in the mid-1960s. Doug's father, John Chernovetz, showed him all the intricacies of the sport, and his second cousin, Bob Kuziel, was also a center in the National Football League in the late-1970s.

Andrew Morency sat in the Donaldson Field stands on Sunday and watched the Masconomet football team dismantle a very good Bishop Fenwick club.

Before Morency had even made it to his car in the parking lot after the Chieftains' 35-14 victory, he was already thinking of ways to make sure his Hamilton-Wenham Generals weren't Masconomet's next victim.

There are days Leon Modeste misses Brooklyn. But this native New Yorker, who has served as both the football and basketball coach at Phillips Academy for the past 21 years, is also fond of his current home.

1.Gloucester (3-0): Three games have equalled 116 points, including an impressive 27-point blowout at Beverly. The catches have been huge thus far for these Fishermen. Last week: 3