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FITCHBURG — John Jeffrey, 71, of Fitchburg is proud supporter of anything Fitchburg High, particularly its football and basketball teams. Jeffrey is a proud FHS graduate, Class of 1971, who played on Hall of Fame coach Doug Grutchfield’s first basketball team in 1970-71, considers legendary FHS Hall of Fame running back Barry MacLean a close, personal friend, and boasts about how his maternal uncle, Dominic Ricci, scored the game-winning touchdown against Leominster in the 1941 Thanksgiving game at then-10-year-old Doyle Field. Knowing all that, one may do a double take upon reading the following: regardless of Saturday’s Chicken Bowl result — a 34-0 Leominster win over Fitchburg at Historic Crocker Field — Jeffrey would have a big smile on his face, since he had grandsons, a pair of first cousins, on both sidelines. The story is incredible, and requires a genealogy flow chart chart to figure it out. In 1978, Jeffrey and his wife had identical twin daughters, Sara and Jill. While they were brought up on the Fitchburg-Leominster rivalry, they attended Gardner High. Sara eventually met and married Craig Lashua of Fitchburg, while Jill married Scott Chester of Leominster. Eagle-eyed Blue Devil readers are quick to take note of that marriage, as Scott Chester is a legendary LHS standout athlete from the early 1980s who scored nine TDs in back-to-back Blue Devil Super Bowl wins, and his father, the late David Chester, was himself a four-sport Leominster luminary from the mid-1950s, who scored 54 points against Fitchburg in basketball, the most points ever scored by one player against the Red Raiders, in 1955. Both Scott and David are Leominster High Hall of Famers. And if you know your local sports history, you’ll know that Craig Lashua’s uncle, Ray, was himself a standout Red Raider grid player under Ed Sullivan; Ray Lashua had 10 point-afters in his senior year of 1954, and a safety against Gardner in their October 1953 meeting. Jill’s marriage to Scott gave birth to Masyn Chester, currently a junior at Leominster High. Masyn has played special teams on the Leominster first team and has been a leader on the Blue Devil JV squad. Much like his old man and paternal grandfather, Masyn is speed personified, and he has been key in the success Leominster has had at this level in 2024. In a game against Shrewsbury a month ago, Masyn Chester scored the go-ahead touchdown in what turned out a 16-8 Blue and White victory. A week prior, Masyn scored three times, rushed for 150 yards and had 50 receiving yards in a JV win over Wachusett. Sara’s marriage gave birth to Cole Lashua, currently an eighth grader at Longsjo Middle School; due to numbers, FHS sought a waiver from the MIAA to allow eighth graders from Academy Street and Memorial Middle School to play on the Red Raider second team. Cole is a big, strong kid who stepped into the quarterback role partway through the season, and has also shown — on video captured by his maternal grandfather — to be a defensive beast who flows like water to the football. While Fitchburg has not been successful in terms of win and losses at the JV level, no one expected them to be world beaters: with a good portion of the team as eighth graders, FHS officials were just expecting the boys to get used to the speed of the high school game, giving those young men vital experience against bigger, stronger — and older — kids. The JV kids FHS faced were as many as four years older than the middle schoolers. Saturday afternoon’s annual sub-varsity grid tilt between the archrivals was the first time the maternal first cousins met on the field in a meaningful manner—and may be the only time. Next year, Masyn and the Blue Devils will come to the corner of Circle and Broad again, this time on a Thursday morning, to do battle with the Red and Gray. And Cole will be there, too, on Fitchburg High’s sideline as a freshman. Freshmen aren’t guaranteed varsity action. That meant the combined Jeffrey, Lashua, and Chester clans savored Saturday — again, regardless of the outcome. The cousins did connect on one first-half play Saturday, as Masyn grabbed a 20-yard Jeddiel Melendez pass at the Fitchburg 1, with Cole grabbing him and preventing him from getting into the end zone. Suffice it to say, “Gunka” Jeffrey will always remember Saturday—the day he has patiently waited for for a long time.South Korea crisis deepens as Yoon faces probe over martial law
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