Kevin J. Stone, New England Football Journal
The four-time defending WFA Pro National Champions opened the 2023 season at Harry Della Russo Stadium in Revere on Saturday night and it was business as usual.
Led by a returning Allison Cahill at QB after an Achilles injury kept her out of the championship game in 2022, the Renegades waltzed to a 63-6 win over the DC Divas.
Cahill threw for 277 yards and four touchdowns on a 16-20 clip while Tytti Kuusinen had 71 rushing yards and Chanté Bonds had 123 yards receiving and three TD’s. Katie Falkowski also added two rushing TD’s and 59 yards on 10 carries. As a team, Boston outgained DC 454-213 while holding the Divas to 79 yards on the ground.
“I’m happy with today’s effort,” said head coach John Johnson. “We still have a lot to work on, but I thought we came out and played well. Looking forward to getting back out to practice on Tuesday.”
“I agree with coach, I’m happy with the way we played today, but looking forward to fine-tuning the details,” added assistant coach Kathryn Tylander. “We’ve still got lots of room for growth and improvement.”
Cahill hit Bonds for a 19-yard TD to get the scoring going with Vanessa Baer adding her first PAT of the 2023 season. Kuusinen added a 20-yard TD run, Adrienne Smith hauled in a 5-yard TD from Cahill and Kuusinen rumbled in from five yards out to cap a 28-0 first quarter.
Another Cahill TD to Bonds from 7-yards out early in the second pushed it to 35-0 and the Renegades took a 42-0 lead to the locker room at halftime after a Ruth Matta 3-yard run with Maggie Barden kicking her first PAT.
In the third, Falkowski scored from a yard out to make it a 49-point lead. Cahill and Bonds connected for a 50-yard bomb to push it to 56-0 and Falkowski added one more one-yard TD run late before DC got on the board for a meaningless score.
“Everybody came ready to play,” said Falkowski. “Very fun to watch the defense dominate after the past four months of playing against them. Offense was firing on all cylinders as well…wide receivers, tight ends, running backs and especially the O-line. Gotta give some love to Cliff Ashley and his special teams unit as well, they were on point as always. All in all, this was a full team effort.”
