Reported by us | Freetown

Joe Procaccini, the Canessa brothers and 21 seniors took Apponequet from 2-9 to an unbeaten regular season

Joe Procaccini ran for 1,491 yards before the playoffs and led Division 5 in touchdowns, Paxton Canessa kept finding his younger brother Beckett in the end zone, and sophomore Pete Suneson called a defense that held five opponents to 16 points or fewer.

By the SC360 Sports Desk | Published Nov. 7, 2026 | Last verified Nov. 7, 2026, 11:50 a.m. ET

FREETOWN Updated 11:40 a.m. Nov. 7.

A year after Apponequet lost its first seven games, Joe Procaccini, Paxton and Beckett Canessa and a senior class of 21 gave Lakeville and Freetown a football team that won every week of the regular season.

The Lakers went 8-0, won each of those games by at least eight points and reached the MIAA Division 5 Round of 16 for the first time since 2023. Their only playoff game came Thursday night, Nov. 5, at Foxborough's Martinelli Field, where the No. 7 Warriors, a state finalist each of the last three years, beat the No. 10 Lakers 42-7. Apponequet is 8-1, and its Thanksgiving game is at Old Rochester on the morning of Nov. 26.

It was a fall full of long touchdowns, with a senior running back who led Division 5 in them, two brothers who kept finding each other in the end zone, a sophomore calling the defense and the program's biggest roster in a decade. The regular season scores, plays and figures in this story come from the schedule the school posts, MaxPreps and the MIAA, and from the coverage of the Boston Globe, the Standard-Times, Nemasket Week and the other outlets listed below.

They stuck together through 2-9

Procaccini and Paxton Canessa were juniors a year ago, when the Lakers lost their first seven games, finished 2-9 and missed the tournament. Six games into that fall, coach Zane Fyfe told Nemasket Week what was holding the group together. "All the guys believe in each other, and they all get along great. They're always pushing for one another," Fyfe said.

This fall Fyfe, in his 12th season, had 56 players, 21 of them seniors, and seniors who came out to try the sport helped push the roster past 50 for the first time in a decade.

"We knew last year wouldn't define us," Procaccini told the Globe. "In a sense, we used it as fuel. Our coaches say we put in deposits in practice every week and then on game day you make a withdrawal. It's kind of like that. It's cool to get a winning season after waiting for so long."

Eight weeks, eight wins

It started Sept. 11 with a 21-13 win at Middleborough, the closest game of the regular season. A week later, at home against Falmouth, Paxton Canessa found his younger brother, Beckett, for a 75-yard touchdown in a 19-8 win, and on Sept. 25 the Lakers won 37-16 at Seekonk, the first of Procaccini's two straight five-touchdown games.

The second came Oct. 2 against Dartmouth, when Procaccini scored all five of Apponequet's touchdowns in a 34-24 home win, among them runs of 39 and 43 yards and a 53-yard catch. A week later he ran for four more, two of them from 41 and 44 yards, in a 48-21 win over Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech, and Standard-Times readers voted Paxton Canessa their SouthCoast Player of the Week for that game with 83% of the vote.

Somerset Berkley fell 33-8 on Oct. 15 as Procaccini scored from 2, 90 and 27 yards out. At Bishop Stang on Oct. 22 he ran for touchdowns of 20, 28 and 33 yards and caught a 55-yard scoring pass from Paxton, who also hit Beckett for a 13-yard touchdown, and kicker Garrett Butler made three extra points in a 35-15 win.

The regular season ended Oct. 30 with a 34-20 win at Dighton-Rehoboth, where Procaccini ran for scores of 57, 35 and 9 yards and added an interception and a fumble recovery on defense, Paxton threw 15-yard touchdown passes to Beckett and to Henry Svirtunas, and Butler made four extra points.

Joe Procaccini's 29

Procaccini, a senior running back who also plays safety, went into the playoffs with 1,491 rushing yards, about 10 yards a carry, and 28 touchdowns, the most in Division 5. He had 14 after four games and 18 after five, and through six he had 21 touchdowns and three two-point conversions, the most on the South Coast by the Standard-Times count. He scored at least three touchdowns in each of the last five regular season games, from Dartmouth on, and he scored from 90, 57 and 55 yards out.

By our count his 28 regular season touchdowns and at least four two-point conversions come to at least 176 points, about two of every three points the Lakers scored in those eight games, and his touchdown at Foxborough made it 29.

All of those yards came behind an offensive line that was the preseason worry, since the Globe's Division 5 preview listed line experience as Apponequet's one concern. The answer came in those 1,491 yards and 261 regular season points, and even at Foxborough, in the third quarter, a kick-out block by No. 51 sprang Procaccini off tackle toward the goal line.

Procaccini was one of the Globe's Players of the Week three times, after the Dartmouth, Greater New Bedford and Bishop Stang games, and he was on the Standard-Times ballots for Player of the Week and for SouthCoast midseason offensive player of the year.

The Canessa brothers

Paxton Canessa, a senior, was in his third season as the starting quarterback, and in the preseason Fyfe told the Globe his quarterback had "been spot on with his throws" in practice. Paxton threw 11 touchdown passes in the 6-0 start and two more in each of the last two regular season games, at least 15 for the season by our count.

Beckett caught at least three of them, from 75, 13 and 15 yards, and he won the same readers' Player of the Week vote his brother did. The brothers connected twice more at Foxborough, and when Paxton found Beckett over good coverage for a first down at the Foxborough 20 in the third quarter, the Foxboro Cable Access announcers called it "brother to brother" and "a little backyard football."

A sophomore calling the defense

Pete Suneson, a sophomore linebacker, called the defense and had 40 tackles and 6.5 sacks going into the playoffs. "As a sophomore he's already telling everyone where to go," Fyfe said. "He's just a natural, instinctual player who understands angles."

The same preseason preview that worried about the line credited the defense with speed at all three levels, led by junior linebacker Troy Cavallo, defensive end Braedyn Marshall and Procaccini at safety, and the Lakers allowed 125 points in eight regular season games, about 15.6 a game, holding five of those opponents to 16 points or fewer.

Two newcomers helped carry the Lakers as well, the Globe wrote: Taejen Riggs, a former soccer player who became a standout at cornerback, and Svirtunas, a basketball standout playing split end, who caught that touchdown at Dighton-Rehoboth. Butler made seven extra points over the last two regular season games, and Marshall opened the night at Foxborough with a catch of about 40 yards on Apponequet's first drive.

Thursday night at Foxborough

Foxborough scored on the first play from scrimmage, a 77-yard run by Jack Taft, and Taft's second touchdown and two scoring catches by Kameron Rice helped the Warriors to a 42-0 halftime lead. The halftime statistics on the broadcast showed Foxborough with 363 yards to Apponequet's 78, and the Lakers had turned the ball over four times.

Apponequet moved the ball on its first two drives, with Marshall's catch reaching the Foxborough 34 before a run on fourth and short was stopped, and the second drive reaching Foxborough territory before Rice intercepted a deep pass at the goal line.

The Lakers kept the ball for the entire third quarter, with the second half played on a running clock. Starting at their own 15, they gave it to Procaccini on nearly every down, converted a fourth and 2, reached the Foxborough 20 on Paxton's throw to Beckett and got to about the 7 on Procaccini's run behind No. 51's block. Replaying one of Procaccini's stiff arms on that drive, the announcers said, "Welcome to Mr. Procaccini's highlight reel." The Lakers reached about the Foxborough 5 before the Warriors took the ball back on downs early in the fourth quarter.

On the last possession Procaccini returned a punt down the sideline, the Canessa brothers connected on a quick out and broke tackles into Foxborough territory, and Procaccini ran in with less than two minutes left. The Apponequet crowd, in the announcers' words, went wild, and one of them said Procaccini had earned it before the extra point made it 42-7.

Our game story has every drive, and our playoff preview has the full scouting report on both teams. Foxborough (5-4) plays at No. 2 Gloucester in the Round of 8 on Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m.

Old Rochester on Thanksgiving

Apponequet goes into Thanksgiving 8-1 after scoring 268 points and allowing 167 in nine games, and Fyfe, who came into the season 49-65, is 57-66 by our count. The Lakers play at Old Rochester on Thursday, Nov. 26, at 10 a.m. at David S. Hagan Stadium. Both teams are 3-0 in the South Coast Conference Blue, and Old Rochester (8-1) is still alive in the Division 6 tournament after beating Bay Path 41-14 the same night the Lakers played at Foxborough.

Going into last year's game, Apponequet led the series 24 wins to 19, Nemasket Week reported, and the Lakers had won the last three, 22-3 in 2022, 36-21 in 2023 and 26-14 in 2024, before Old Rochester ended that streak last fall with a 47-8 win.

"Everybody remembers their last Thanksgiving day game," Fyfe told Nemasket Week after the 2023 game. "For most people it's the last time they ever put on a pair of pads, it's the last time you're ever with this group of guys [you have] spent countless hours with ... That bond is special, you don't get it anywhere else."

Paxton and Beckett Canessa connected all season, from a 75-yard touchdown against Falmouth in the second week to scores at Bishop Stang and Dighton-Rehoboth. At Foxborough, down 42-0 with the clock running, Paxton threw Beckett a quick out on the final drive, and Beckett carried it through missed tackles to set up Procaccini's touchdown. On the only night the Lakers have lost all fall, the brothers were still finding each other at the end, the way they had since September.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.

Notes

The final, the seeds and Foxborough's next game come from the MIAA's Division 5 bracket, matched on MaxPreps' game page and the schedule Apponequet posts on Arbiter Live; every Apponequet date and score, the 268-167 season total and the Thanksgiving date, time and field come from Arbiter Live and MaxPreps, and Old Rochester's record and Division 6 berth from its MaxPreps schedule and the MIAA's Division 6 bracket, all read again early Saturday, Nov. 7. The plays at Foxborough and the announcers' words come from the Foxboro Cable Access broadcast we watched and recorded, and from our game story. Player figures, honors and quotes come from the Boston Globe, the Standard-Times and Nemasket Week, with each quote credited where it first appears and every story listed below. The 261-125 regular season total, the per-game figures, Procaccini's 29 touchdowns and at least 176 points, Canessa's at least 15 touchdown passes and Fyfe's 57-66 record are our arithmetic from those scores and the outlets' figures. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: Apponequet coach Zane Fyfe, asked through the athletic director; anything he sends will be added.

Corrections

No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.

Sources (34)

1. MIAA: Football 2026 Division 5 State Tournament (live bracket page)Round 1: 7 Foxborough 42, 10 Apponequet Regional H.S. 7, 11/05/26 6:00 PM, Ahern Middle School - Foxboro; 2 Gloucester 34, 15 Blackstone Valley Reg Voc / Tech HS 6; Round 2: Gloucester vs. Foxborough, 11/13/26 7:00 PM, Gloucester High School. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:22 a.m.
2. Arbiter Live: Apponequet Regional High School Varsity Football scheduleEvery 2026 result and site; Thu Nov 5 @ Foxborough High School, Martinelli Field, L 7-42; Thu Nov 26, 10:00 AM @ Old Rochester Regional High School, David S Hagan Stadium. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:22 a.m.
3. MaxPreps: Apponequet Regional football schedule, 2026Schedule last updated Nov. 6, 2026: Overall 8-1, League 3-0 South Coast - Blue, Home 4-0, Away 4-1, PF 268, PA 167; 11/5 at Foxborough L 42-7; 11/26 10:00am at Old Rochester Regional. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:22 a.m., and again at 5:06 a.m.
4. MaxPreps: Apponequet Regional at Foxborough, Nov. 5, 2026"On 11/5, the Apponequet Regional varsity football team lost their away playoff game against Foxborough (MA) by a score of 42-7." Apponequet 8-1, Foxborough 5-4. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:22 a.m.
5. MIAA: Football 2026 Division 6 State Tournament (live bracket page)Seeds include 7. Old Rochester Regional and 10. Bay Path RVT. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:5x a.m.
6. MaxPreps: Old Rochester Regional football schedule, 2026Overall 8-1, League 3-0 South Coast - Blue; 11/5 playoff, Old Rochester Regional 41, Bay Path RVT 14. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:30 a.m., and again at 5:06 a.m.
7. Foxboro Cable Access (FCATV): Apponequet vs. Foxborough varsity football, Nov. 5, 2026Live broadcast we watched and recorded: the play by play in our game story, the halftime statistics graphic (Foxborough 363 total yards, Apponequet 78, Apponequet four turnovers), and the announcers' words on the third-quarter drive (7:37 to 7:39 p.m.) and the last possession (7:50 to 7:52 p.m.).
8. Foxborough 42, Apponequet 7: Jack Taft goes 77 yards on the first snap, and 8-0 Apponequet's playoff run ends in the Round of 16Our drive by drive game story, Nov. 5, 2026, from the FCATV broadcast and the final on MaxPreps.
9. 8-0 Apponequet and Joe Procaccini, with 28 touchdowns, visit Jack Martinelli's Foxborough in Thursday's Division 5 playoff openerSeason game reports and program history, with every source listed there (Boston Globe, Standard-Times via Yahoo Sports, Nemasket Week, High School Football America, MIAA, MaxPreps).
10. The Boston Globe: "These four smaller schools enter the MIAA football playoff undefeated. How did they flip their fortunes?" (Nate Weitzer)Published Nov. 5, 2026: more than 50 players for the first time in a decade, with seniors coming out to try the sport; 1,491 rushing yards, 10 yards per carry, 28 total touchdowns; Taejen Riggs and Henry Svirtunas; Procaccini and Fyfe quotes; Pete Suneson 40 tackles and 6.5 sacks while calling the defense. Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:25 a.m.
11. The Boston Globe: Thursday's football roundup, Nov. 5, 2026"Foxborough 42, Apponequet 7: Jack Taft scored two touchdowns on the ground, including a 77-yarder on the first play from scrimmage, and Kam Rice caught two more." Read Nov. 7, 2026, 3:2x a.m.
12. The Boston Globe: Division 5 football preview, 2026Published Sept. 9, 2026: Fyfe 12th season, career 49-65; 56 players, 21 seniors, first time over 50 in a decade; Canessa "been spot on with his throws"; defense with speed at all three levels, led by Cavallo, Marshall and Procaccini; "Concerns: Offensive line experience". Read Nov. 2, 2026.
13. The Boston Globe: MIAA football playoff previewPublished Nov. 1, 2026: Procaccini leads the division with 28 touchdowns. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
14. The Boston Globe: Schools Insider, Sept. 19Paxton Canessa to his younger brother Beckett, 75 yards. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
15. The Boston Globe: Oct. 2 scores and resultsProcaccini scored all five touchdowns against Dartmouth, a 39-yard rush, a 43-yard rush and a 53-yard reception. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
16. The Boston Globe: Players of the Week, Week 4Procaccini, five touchdowns for the second consecutive game, pacing Division 5 with 14. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
17. The Boston Globe: Players of the Week, Week 5Procaccini, 18 touchdowns, four rushing touchdowns against Greater New Bedford, including 41- and 44-yard scores. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
18. The Boston Globe: Players of the Week, Week 7Procaccini, scores of 20, 28 and 33 yards and a 55-yard touchdown catch against Bishop Stang. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
19. The Standard-Times (on Yahoo Sports): SouthCoast midseason offensive player of the year ballotPublished Oct. 22, 2026: Canessa three-year starter, 11 touchdown passes in the 6-0 start; Procaccini 21 touchdowns and 3 two-point conversions through six games. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
20. The Standard-Times (on Yahoo Sports): Week 6 player of the week ballotPublished Oct. 20, 2026: Canessa won the Week 5 readers' poll with 83% of the vote; Procaccini touchdown runs of 2, 90 and 27 yards against Somerset Berkley. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
21. The Standard-Times (on Yahoo Sports): Week 7 SouthCoast football roundupCanessa touchdown passes of 55 yards to Procaccini and 13 yards to Beckett Canessa; Procaccini a 2-point conversion; Garrett Butler 3 PATs. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
22. The Standard-Times (on Yahoo Sports): Week 8 SouthCoast football roundupPublished Oct. 30, 2026: Procaccini touchdown runs of 57, 35 and 9 yards, an interception and a fumble recovery; Canessa 15-yard touchdown passes to Beckett Canessa and Henry Svirtunas; Butler 4 PATs. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
23. The Standard-Times (on Yahoo Sports): Week 8 player of the week ballotPublished Nov. 2, 2026: Procaccini on the ballot; previous winners include Paxton Canessa and Beckett Canessa. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
24. MaxPreps: Apponequet football 2025 schedule2-9, losses in the first seven games. Read Nov. 4, 2026.
25. Nemasket Week: Apponequet Lakers varsity football team "sticking together" through tough seasonPublished Oct. 10, 2025: Fyfe on the team sticking together. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
26. Nemasket Week: Apponequet Thanksgiving 2025Published Nov. 27, 2025: Old Rochester 47, Apponequet 8; 2025 record 2-9, no tournament; 24 Apponequet Thanksgiving wins and 19 for Old Rochester going into the game. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
27. Nemasket Week: Lakers beat Old Rochester at Thanksgiving, 2023Published Nov. 23, 2023: Apponequet 36, Old Rochester 21; Fyfe on the last Thanksgiving game. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
28. Nemasket Week: Apponequet Lakers named South Coast Conference ChampionsPublished Nov. 24, 2022: Apponequet beat Old Rochester 22-3 on Thanksgiving. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
29. High School Football America: 2024 Thanksgiving scores, MassachusettsApponequet Regional 26, Old Rochester Regional 14. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
30. The Boston Globe: Dedham delivers early knockout against Apponequet in Division 5 openerPublished Nov. 3, 2023: Apponequet in the Division 5 Round of 16, lost 30-6 at Dedham. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
31. High School Football America: 2024 Massachusetts playoffs, Round 1Division 5 Round of 16, seeds 1 to 16, Apponequet not among them. Read Nov. 2, 2026.
32. MIAA: 2025 Football State Championships programFoxborough won the 2023 Division 5 Super Bowl, 48-21 over Hanover; Shawsheen Tech 14, Foxborough 0 in the 2024 final; 2025 Division 5 final Shawsheen Tech vs. Foxborough. Read Nov. 4, 2026.
33. The Boston Globe: "Flexing its strength, Foxborough lines up its third straight trip to Division 5 Super Bowl"Published Nov. 22, 2025: Foxborough 31, Archbishop Williams 0, "a third-straight trip to the Division 5 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium"; the Warriors. Read Nov. 4, 2026.
34. MaxPreps: Foxborough football 2025 schedule"On 12/5, the Foxborough varsity football team lost their away playoff game against Shawsheen Valley Tech (Billerica, MA) by a score of 14-7." Read Nov. 4, 2026.

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