For the second year in a row, the Fisherman football team will advance to the Division 2A North semifinals after an 18-6 quarterfinal win against Melrose last Friday.

The first touchdown of the night for the Fisherman came during the first quarter from senior captain Jermaine Edwards on a 17 yard run up the middle.

Fellow captain Christian Sanfilippo also scored at the end of the second half after a nine minute long, 86 yard battle to push the Fisherman to 12-0 at the half. The game pushed Sanfilippo so his fourth straight 200 yard game, having rushed for 206 yards.

Senior quick guard Kyle Aquipel helped to take down a Melrose offender on their five yard line to send the team into the half, leading 12-0.

In the middle of the third quarter, however, Melrose running back Mike Pedrini put the Red Raiders on the board after a 75 yard rush. Gloucester quickly recovered in the fourth quarter when Sanfilippo scored the game winning touchdown to push the score to 18-6.

“Defense played really well,” said senior co-captain and quarterback Nate Young. “It was wet so we made more mistake than we should have but this week we won’t.”

Tomorrow the team will be traveling to Marblehead where they will be in the same circumstance as last year. Previously, the Fisherman played the Magicians in the Division 2A North semifinals where they lost with a score of 27-0.

“Marblehead has a really good team and they played really well last year,” said Young. “It will probably be a really close game and whoever makes the least mistakes is going to win.”

The team will be playing first seeded Marblehead at Piper Field tomorrow at 7pm.