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Gloucester's return to Foxboro: After 20 years, 1987's loss still hurts

Thursday, November, 29 By Matt Langone
Sports editor

None of the current players on the Gloucester High School football team were born the last time the Fishermen played in a Super Bowl in Foxboro.

However, as unbeaten Gloucester (12-0) prepares for Saturday's Division 2A Super Bowl against Hingham at Gillette Stadium, it's probably safe to say that this year's players know all about the controversial play that many Gloucester football fans believe cost the Fishermen the Division 2 Super Bowl title 20 years ago. If the players do know about it, they can thank their assistant coach, who had a front seat for the contest.

Current Gloucester assistant coach Tom Walsh was also on the 1987 coaching staff under then head coach Terry Silva. Like it happened yesterday, Walsh vividly remembers the play that led to his team's 21-14 loss to Chelmsford in front of approximately 12,000 Gloucester fans. Ironically, that game was also played at the home of the New England Patriots, which at the time was Sullivan Stadium.

"I remember it was an awful feeling after the play," said Walsh, who took time to reminisce yesterday before studying Hingham on film. "It was the worst and most controversial call that I've seen in 30 years coaching at Gloucester."

Trailing 21-14 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, Gloucester had the ball on its own 30-yard line. The Fishermen then executed a beautiful seven-play drive down to the Chelmsford 1-yard line.

Gloucester was faced with a second-and-goal with slightly less than two minutes to play in the contest. According to Walsh, the Fishermen had the perfect scoring play up their sleeve and were already looking toward a potential game-winning, two-point conversion attempt.

"The play call on second down was the veer right going to (Steve) Marshall," recalled Walsh. "All year, the quarterback had the option of running on that play if he saw the defense right. So he went with the quarterback sneak. "We already had the two-point conversion play planned because we thought we were going to score. We were going to go for the win, not the tie."

Quarterback Joe Pasquina was stopped for what looked to be a no gain on the quarterback-keeper, but in photographs taken at the game, he looked to have possibly crossed the goaline with the football as his knees touched to the ground.

Nevertheless, the real controversy was still to come.

As Pasquina lunged forward, trying to cross the goaline, the football dropped out of his hands and into the end zone and was recovered by a Chelmsford player. Despite the fact that Pasquina's knees were apparently down, the game's officials had a long discussion about the play. After much deliberation, the play was indeed ruled a fumble, ending Gloucester's bid for a title.

Long-time Gloucester Daily Times sports writer John "Doc" Enos, covered the game and believes Pasquina was clearly down and play should've been stopped.

"The referee that was supposed to make the call didn't," Enos said yesterday.

As much as many Gloucester fans would love to go back and re-write history, it's not going to happen. Thankfully, there hasn't been a long-lasting string of bad luck for the Fishermen since that heartbreaking loss, as Gloucester won Super Bowl crowns in 1991, 1995, and 2000. Another crown this year would be another step toward making people forget about 1987's unfortunate loss, and the fact that this year's game is in Foxboro would provide at least some redemption. Material from John "Doc" Enos' book entitled Fishermen Football was used in this column.