RUMFORD – Offensive linemen are allowed to exchange their uniform number for a different one; one that makes them eligible to run with the football, catch it and get their name in the newspaper once in a while.
There’s no law against exchanging grunt work for glamour and shedding anonymity for adulation. But it comes with a price.
Travis Fergola relocated from Mountain Valley High School’s front five to its fullback slot this summer for honest, common sense reasons.
At 6-foot-2 and a sturdy 215 pounds, Fergola was envisioned as the ideal chauffeur for 5-foot-5 escape artist Aaron Arsenault and someone capable of throwing a change-up at Campbell Conference defenses every now and then.
Ten games into the prolific experiment, the hardest hits Fergola has absorbed this autumn haven’t come from defensive tackles determined to deny him a glimpse of the end zone. He takes more abuse from the former colleagues who confront those would-be tacklers at the point of attack.
“They call me a glorified lineman,” said Fergola, who still sports the chin stubble that gives him the grizzled look of a guard or tackle.
Brendan Bradley concurred. “That’s what he is,” said the guard and inside linebacker who pronounces himself a “fat” guy at 5-9, 205. “A glorified one of us.”
“Except once in a while he gets to run 42 yards for a touchdown,” said 275-pound center and defensive tackle David Smith.
It’s good-natured harassment, in part because the guys left behind in the trench fraternity can’t quibble with the results.
Fergola can move, as evidenced by his 13 carries for 58 yards and a 7-yard TD run in last week’s 15-6 Western Class B semifinal victory over Greely.
And he hasn’t grown soft and forgotten how to block. Just ask Arsenault, the 155-pound punisher who has taken full advantage of his new partner in pounding away at defenses.
Arsenault leads the unbeaten, reigning state champions with 1,350 yards and 20 TDs.
“Those guys all deserve more credit than they get,” said Arsenault, whose Falcons (10-0) host York (8-2) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday for the regional title.
Jim Aylward, the only head coach Mountain Valley has ever known, usually finds more linemen among wannabe running backs than vice versa. That’s how he once discovered Chris West, a two-way lineman of the early 1990s who took his talent all the way to the University of Tennessee.
Armed with Bradley, Smith and 235-pound junior Kyle Dow, however, Aylward had the luxury of assigning Fergola, who also is one of the state’s leading linebackers, a higher profile.
“It’s like having a guard in the backfield,” Aylward said. “He’s the lead blocker for Aaron Arsenault, and I’ll tell you what. People can say all they want about boring,’ but Aaron is going to carry the ball 25 times a game for as many more games as we’re fortunate enough to play this year.”
The switch to a more physical offensive set suits the Falcons, who have taken on a different disposition than the group that won the school’s first Gold Ball last season.
Arsenault was the lone veteran back from a championship backfield that included Fergola’s older brother, Zach, at quarterback.
“Last year, we had 10 seniors who were just altar boys. I’m not sure where we got them. It must have been something in the water the year they were born,” joked Aylward. “These kids this year are just tough kids. They’re chippy. I even have to get after them in practice a little because of it. This is more what I’m used to.”
As one of numerous faces in new places, Fergola will take nothing for granted against a York program that handed Mountain Valley its most recent loss on opening night of 2004.
Talk of the Falcons’ 21-game winning streak, far and away the longest in the state, is off limits. Mention the Wildcats, and the in-house joking stops.
“It’s a whole new season,” Fergola said. “We’re in the playoffs, and we’re 1-0 right now.”
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