Home Care In Auburn, MA

AUBURN, Ala. -- — Robby Ashford rushed for three first-half touchdowns as Auburn defeated UMass 59-14 on Saturday in Hugh Freeze’s debut as the Tigers’ head coach.

Ashford, the Tigers’ 2022 starting quarterback, was used in red-zone packages to complement new starter and Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne. Thorne threw for 141 yards and a touchdown in his Auburn (1-0) debut.

“Obviously, you always want to be the starter,” Ashford said. “But Payton’s done a great job, and I look at him like a brother. We come out there every day and just know we’re out here to make each other better and do whatever we can to help this team win.”

Damari Alston scored a rushing touchdown on the Tigers’ first drive, while freshman Jeremiah Cobb broke a 42-yard touchdown run on the second carry of his college career. The Tigers rushed for 294 yards.

Alston started at running back in place of junior Jarquez Hunter, the team’s top returner in rushing yards. Hunter did not dress out Saturday, and he missed Auburn’s first several practices in August for undisclosed reasons.

Auburn’s defense recorded two takeaways and stopped UMass twice on fourth down in the victory. Jaylin Simpson returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown and recovered a fumble forced by fellow defensive back Donovan Kaufman.

“It was good to see our defense play hard,” Freeze said. “I thought we played harder than we have in the scrimmages and than we did in the first possession. I thought we started to show a little passion.”

UMass (1-1) scored a touchdown on its first possession of the game but was unable to put up any more points until the fourth quarter. Kay’Ron Adams led the Minutemen with 101 rushing yards, while backup quarterback Carlos Davis found Arizona transfer receiver Anthony Simpson for a late 58-yard touchdown.

“Not a good day to be a UMass Minuteman, for sure,” UMass head coach Don Brown said. “But I really believe our guys, we will rebound, we will practice hard, and we will back next week ready to go.”

PLENTY OF FRESH FACES

More than half of the scholarship players on Auburn’s 2023 roster weren’t on the team last year, including Thorne and Cobb.

Thirteen of the Tigers’ 22 offensive and defensive starters Saturday were newcomers, which several players believe contributed to the slower start Saturday.

“We’ve got a ton of new guys, new coaching staff,” said outside linebacker Elijah McAllister, who transferred from Vanderbilt this offseason. “It was our first time playing with each other, so we kind of got acclimated and settled in.”

A RECORD CROWD

Freeze’s debut came in front of the largest home crowd in Auburn history, as the Tigers announced an attendance of 88,043 on Saturday. Auburn added new seating inside Jordan-Hare Stadium this summer to expand from its long-time capacity of 87,451.

“To see our largest student crowd ever and largest crowd ever, it’s just quite humbling,” Freeze said. “I just can’t say enough about their support and what that means to our players, our staff, our administration, everybody here at Auburn. It just speaks to the love and passion of the Auburn family.”

THE TAKEAWAY

UMass: The Minutemen were able to hit the Tigers for several big plays but just didn’t have the depth or athleticism to truly compete with an SEC team after the first quarter.

Auburn: The Tigers struggled to pass and stop the run early, which were both problems from last season. But second-half improvement in both areas — and the overall success of the rushing attack without Hunter — were positive signs.

UP NEXT

UMass: Hosts Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 9.

Auburn: Visits California on Sept. 9.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

Correspondent

There is always something old going on in Central Mass. football. The latest is Auburn’s 15-15 tie with Swampscott last weekend, overtime being canceled due to lightning.

It was the first tie involving a Central Mass. team in 20 years, or since Leominster and Brockton played a 22-22 game on Oct. 31, 2003. It was Auburn’s first tie since a 6-6 game with Grafton on Sept. 29, 1990. With the Swampscott deadlock, Auburn coach Jeff Cormier joined Ken LaChapelle and Sean Mahoney as the only active Central Mass. coaches with a tie on their records.

The game featured three field goals by Rockets kicker A.J. Oliveira, which appropriately ties the known record in Central Mass. It has been done at least six times now, most recently by P.J. Barry of St. Peter-Marian. He did it twice in 2016, the last time on Oct. 15. That put him on his way to the regional record of 11 for the season.

? Central Mass. teams did not fare well in out-of-region games to start the year. They went 3-8-1 in 12 meetings with foreign schools. Central Mass. was 1-7-1 against the East, 2-1 against the West. Auburn had the tie, while Blackstone-Millville beat Bellingham in eastern games. Quaboag beat Ludlow and Lunenburg triumphed over Frontier in the west.

? Rookie coaches broke even on the weekend. The eight newcomers combined to go 4-4. John Vassar at St. John’s, Zac Attaway at Hudson, Casey McDonnell at Lunenburg and James Royster at Nipmuc posted victories. Nick Clark at Southbridge, Paul DiGeronimo at Fitchburg, Steve Ide at Shepherd Hill and Chris Simoneau at Worcester Tech suffered defeats.

? The Northbridge Rams are hoping that lightning only strikes twice when they play. They were beaten by West Boylston Friday night in a game delayed twice by lightning. The only other lightning game they have had to endure was on Oct. 8, 1982, a 19-0 loss at David Prouty that was called after three periods. The defeat ended the Rams’ 38-game SWCL winning streak, and their bus broke down as they headed home.

Northbridge takes on a strong St. Bernard’s team this weekend while hoping to snap a seven-game losing streak going back to last season. Northbridge has not lost eight straight since a 10-game dip that lasted from 1933 into 1935.

? North and Abby Kelley have played five times through the years, Abby Kelley winning thrice. Two games went into overtime; one was a 3-0 Abby Kelley victory; and last weekend’s was another close one with North prevailing, 24-20. The Polar Bears’ victory was their first opening-game triumph since 2016.

? Doherty seeks its 300th all-time victory when it plays Leominster. The Highlanders are 299-257-8 starting with their first season in 1966. Doherty has employed only four head coaches in 58 years — Jackie Whalen, Ralph Raymond, Bill Erven and Sean Mulcahy. The Highlanders won their inaugural game on Sept. 24, 1966, by beating North, 20-0.

Leominster leads Doherty all time, 20-6-1, but the Highlanders have won five of the last six meetings.

? Opening weekend featured a blast from the past when Murdock played Athol for the first time since 1950. The neighboring schools first met in 1894 in an on-and-mostly-off rivalry. Athol’s 34-0 victory last weekend improved its record in the series to 9-0.

? Narragansett and Ware play this weekend for the first time. However, 'Gansett’s ancestor school, Templeton, played against Ware three times in the 1930s. The last meeting was a 13-0 Ware victory on Oct. 30, 1937.

? Nipmuc takes on Assabet with a chance to record its 100th football victory. The school commenced football in 2003 under coach Dan Provost, opening with a 14-7 loss to Tantasqua, and is 99-116-0 overall.

? A sure sign of the changing landscape of Central Mass. football is that West Boylston is playing Fitchburg for the first time this weekend; with about 225 seasons of football between them, Wachusett and Lawrence play for the first time ever this weekend; St. John’s is playing LaSalle Academy of Providence for the ninth time, but the first time since 1944, and LaSalle leads the series, 7-1-0.

? Congratulations to Grafton’s Chris McMahon for joining the 100 Club in games coached; to Millbury’s Ray Richards for winning his 70th game and becoming the winningest coach in school history; and a nod towards Leicester’s Tim Griffiths, who will coach his 300th game when the Wolverines play Bay Path.

—Contact Bill Ballou at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BillBallouTG.

More than 200 students were baptized on Sept. 12 with several Auburn head coaches taking part in the religious moments

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Several coaches are in hot water with a national nonprofit organization days after taking part in a cold water baptism event that saw hundreds of Auburn University students dedicate their lives to Christ.

On Thursday, the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a warning to Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze and others against athlete baptisms, saying their employer is a public university, not a religious institution, and that such actions are violations are of the U.S. Constitution.

Auburn University confirmed Friday it had received a letter from the foundation and that it was evaluating it, though it had no additional comment.

Gov. Kay Ivey, who serves as the president of every state university’s board of trustees, issued her own response to the FFRF on Friday, calling the nonprofit’s letters “misleading and misguided,” and that no one’s religious liberties are being violated.

Thousands of people packed Auburn University’s Neville Arena for a night of worship on Sept 12. When it was ending, one student indicated they wanted to be baptized. Without a tub, crowds started gathering at the lake at Auburn’s Red Barn, where roughly 200 people ultimately got baptized.

Freeze waded into the water to help one of the players on the Tigers football team, who wanted to be baptized but didn’t want to do it alone.

Following the event, FFRF said it got multiple reports that Freeze, as well as Auburn head basketball and baseball coaches Bruce Pearl and Butch Thompson were involved in promotion of the “Unite Auburn” religious worship service.

The organization sent a letter to Auburn University President Christopher B. Roberts stating:

The organization said that coaches “exert great influence and power over student athletes and those athletes will follow the lead of their coaches,” and said it amounted to “religious coercion” when those coaches use their positions “to inject religion into its sports programs.”

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The pressure was on recently for three Massachusetts residents who whipped up cookies for Food Network’s “Halloween Cookie Challenge.”

The challenge is hosted by celebrity pastry chef Duff Goldman and social media sensation Rosanna Pansino, and “brings together the best cookie makers in the country to compete in two challenges and create the creepiest, spookiest and tastiest Halloween cookies ever made,” a spokesperson from Food Network told MassLive.

Season 2 of the show begins Monday, Sept. 25. at 10 p.m. Each episode will present a new batch of bakers, and one winner will be crowned each week. The winner takes home a trick-or-treat bag filled with $10,000, according to the show.

The episode featuring Aisling O’Sullivan, of Auburn, airs Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. Filming took place in California in April over several days.

O’Sullivan was one of four bakers to create a cookie showing how “creepers relax the next day” after Halloween. Three bakers advance to the next round, where they try to create 3D ancient coffins using dried figs, dried apples, figs and dried cherries.

O’Sullivan said the first challenge was “really cute,” explaining how between the four bakers, characters were doing yoga, meditation and other relaxing activities.

O’Sullivan has been making cookies for nine years and currently runs Aisling’s Cookies part-time while also working as a nurse part-time at St. Vincent Hospital.

“That’s what makes me happiest,” said O’Sullivan. “It’s a lot of work making cookies and it’s a lot of work being a nurse.”

Massachusetts residents Loren Stanard, also of Auburn, and Nolan Schooley, of Billerica, both competed on the same episode of the “Halloween Cookie Challenge,” scheduled to air Oct. 2 at 10 p.m.

For the first challenge, Both Stanard and Schooley had to decorate half-face makeup cookies, with one side of the cookie being a self-portrait while the other half shows off “their scary makeup.”

The second challenge included having to make life-size oozing zombie parts out of cookies using ingredients like blackberry jam, orange marmalade, raspberry jam and cranberry sauce.

Stanard, who is a tattoo artist at Caged Raven in Worcester, said this halfway cookie challenge “was very natural” for her and explained how “tattooing is like the same thing as piping on a cookie but it’s just like stabbing into someone’s skin.”

Stanard used to be a full-time baker, but decided to transition into being a tattoo artist during the COVID pandemic because she needed a break from baking.

Being a part of the filming for this competition, has “lit a fire” under her, motivating Stanard to continue working on her cookbook, which she began when she was 13 years old.

The competition caused a few gray hairs and anxiety for Stanard, but she also found her best friend, Schooley.

“Nolan was on my episode and it was like an instant connection,” said Stanard.

“We met on the show,” said Schooley. “I just remember walking into the room and I saw her and was immediately like, ‘we’re going to be best friends...’ We’re soul besties, we’re pretty much the same person and the universe literally brought us together and I’m so thankful for it.”

This was the third time Schooley has been on the Food Network. He’s done the Holiday Baking Championship in 2018 and the Christmas Cookie Challenge in 2021.

“I have always wanted to do a Halloween show. Like Christmas is fine. Christmas is cute. She’s a moment. But Halloween, I am wholeheartedly obsessed with, so when I got the call to finally do a Halloween show, I was like step aside, Mama is here.”

Apart from baking, Schooley is the front of the house manager at Ovenbird Cafe in Belmont, and is a full-time law student at Harvard University.

Schooley said competitors get 90 minutes to craft their cookies, which he said “is a little bananas ... No, it’s extremely bananas.”

“Basically, you just have to buckle up and hold onto the goddamn seat of your pants and pray for the best,” said Schooley.

Details about the Food Network Halloween Cookie Challenge and an episode guide can be found on its website.

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Press Release from Town of Natick.

NATICK, MA — The Town of Natick has executed an agreement to develop the town-owned property at 5 Auburn Street with Metro West Collaborative Development (Metro West CD), a proven developer with similar projects throughout the region. The development agreement is the result of an in-depth, ten-month RFP process led by the Select Board. The selection criteria in the RFP considered the proposed re-use of the property (including affordable housing and historic preservation) and the ability to execute, including a financing plan. As Select Board Chair Bruce Evans said, “Speaking for the Board, we believe that partnering with Metro West CD provides the town with an extraordinary opportunity to make meaningful progress on providing affordable housing in Natick. This development will deliver 32 high-quality residential units, all of which will be deeded as affordable in perpetuity. These units will be available via lottery based on income eligibility, with preference given to Natick residents and people who are employed in Natick. The project will repurpose the interior of the former Eliot School while preserving the building’s historic architecture.”

Metro West Collaborative Development is a non-profit community development corporation with a mission to undertake projects that help communities achieve their affordable housing goals. According to Caitlin Madden, Executive Director of Metro West CD, “Metro West CD is thrilled to have been chosen by the Select Board to develop 5 Auburn Street, a project that will mobilize State, Federal, and private resources to preserve the historic Eliot School and increase the diversity of housing available in the wonderful South Natick community. We take great pride in being a collaborative partner for the towns where we work and we look forward to engaging further with the community.” Metro West CD invites members of the Natick community to the first community event, a ‘Meet the Developer Open House’, scheduled for August 29 from 5:30-7PM at the Community-Senior Center, 117 East Central Street.

As Natick follows through on its wider commitment to affordable housing, Mr. Evansreiterated that “the 5 Auburn Street project is a powerful example of what Natick needsto do to build a future with a strong, diverse housing inventory. As we begin thismilestone project, I want to emphasize our commitment to active listening andpartnership with residents, property owners, and developers to advance our sharedvision.”