By Jeff Slovin, Contributing Writer
Dudley – The visiting Algonquin Regional Tomahawks football team fell to the Shepherd Hill Regional Rams by a score of 31-0 in a game played Sept. 30. This was the first loss of the season for Algonquin, and the first in their past eight contests, going back to last season.
Overshadowing the game itself was the story surrounding Shepherd Hill’s Kevin Mensah, playing in his first home game of the season. Mensah is a strong prospect to play Division 1 college football next year.
He played for Holy Name for the past three years before transferring to Shepherd Hill for his senior year for financial reasons. According to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules, transfer students must sit out a year unless both schools sign a waiver. Mensah sat out the first 2 weeks of the season before Holy Name agreed to support the transfer and a Worcester court issued an injunction, allowing him to play in his first game of the season last week against Wachusett.
On Thursday, a subcommittee of the MIAA, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council, ruled that Mensah is ineligible to play for the remainder of the season because the waiver standards had not been met. On Friday afternoon, just several hours before kickoff time, a judge issued a second injunction allowing him to play in the game against Algonquin, and scheduled a hearing for next week to review his eligibility for the remainder of the season.
Algonquin is now 3-1 on the season and will be travelling to Leominster next Friday, Oct. 7 for their next matchup. Shepherd Hill is now 1-3 on the season.
