Cape Tech Finishes Undefeated Regular Season, Advances To State Playoffs

FALL RIVER – Of the 262 football programs competing within the MIAA this year, 13 will enter the state playoffs undefeated.

The gridiron team at the vocational school of 700 students inside Harwich’s Pleasant Lake village is one of them.

A year after storming through the second half of the season all the way to a vocational championship (the program’s first-ever title), Cape Tech has once again reached a new echelon. The Crusaders thrashed Atlantis Charter 49-0 last Friday to finish a perfect 7-0 regular season. 

Not even those Cape Tech/Harwich co-op teams that reached a pair of state championships in the early 2000s were without a loss heading into the postseason. 

Now, the Crusaders are winners of 15 straight dating back to Oct. 17, 2025 as they advance to the Division 8 playoffs — the first time the team has reached the postseason under the state’s current tournament structure (Cape Tech last earned a state postseason berth in 2018, under a completely different tournament system).

Head coach Calvin Castillias’ squad has rolled all year. Five of the seven wins were decided by a margin of multiple possessions. Three were shutouts, including two consecutively to end the month.

Castillias has told the teams multiple times their performance has been “historical,” he said.

“They've risen to every challenge we put in front of them,” Castillias said.

The win at Atlantis Charter was just more of the same for the group, and then some, as they shined at the Tritons’ waterside field. Their 49 points were a single-game high dating back to at least before 2021. Their overall point differential in 2026 is 216-52.

“When they play together and they win all phases of the game, this team is unstoppable, and they've believed in that,” Castillias said.

In the undefeated regular season-clincher, senior quarterback Daniel Handville completed 8 of 12 passes for 163 yards and two passing touchdowns. Senior Thomas Allen had 10 carries for 168 yards and two touchdowns, including an 88-yard run for a score in the first quarter. Allen is approaching a 1,000-yard year, according to Castillias. 

Senior Chaz Thomas had one rushing touchdown as well as a pair of 2-point conversions. Senior Anthony Bartlett had 20 yards rushing and 69 yards receiving, including a second-quarter touchdown. Junior Jordyn Wilson caught four passes for 90 yards and a touchdown (a leaping grab in the red zone over two Atlantis Charter defenders), in addition to a 2-point conversion. 

In the second half, junior Benjamin Burgess threw a touchdown pass to sophomore Nathan Gillette.

“Offensively, they just build on each other,” Castillias said. “We do a really good job of our scouting and [seeing] who they're going to key in, and the fortunate part about us is we have so many weapons.”

On defense, Allen had three tackles and an interception, and Wilson had two tackles and an interception. Senior Tanner Cambral made six tackles and recovered a fumble. Thomas had six tackles (two for loss) and a sack, and senior Nathan Eldredge made three tackles (two for loss) and a sack.

“We've been going really good this year,” Eldredge said. “Everybody's been dialed in. We all want tackles. We all want to win.”

It’d be understandable for the Crusaders to turn toward the past to appreciate the insane run of football games they’ve played. In October 2025, Cape Tech was 1-4, coming off a 3-8 season the year prior at that.

Something clicked, and they haven’t lost since. 

“We just kept winning,” Eldredge said. “It just kept building up from there. Everybody just all had passion. We all wanted to be there, play our hearts out.”

They’re not ready to reminisce about this stretch just quite yet, though.

“These guys have never looked back, put it that way,” Castillias said. “They've always looked forward. It's always been next team up.”

That next team up is No. 13 Bartlett (6-2), who visit No. 4 Cape Tech in the opening round of the Division 8 tournament Friday at 6 p.m. 

Last fall, the Crusaders shocked the vocational postseason field by winning the team’s first state championship. This fall, they secured the first home state playoff game in program history.

“​​All I want to do right now is go back to back senior year,” Eldredge said. “That's the only thing I want to do right now.”

The meeting with Webster-based (Central Massachusetts) Bartlett will be another official step in the “blitz to 81.6,” a concept Cape Tech has had in mind all year, according to Castillias — 81.6 miles is the distance from the school to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

But just a couple days following the end of the regular season, the MIAA announced state football championships would actually not be held at Gillette as they had been for the previous several years.

“The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association was informed late last week that the utilization of Gillette Stadium for the MIAA Football Championships is no longer an option,” a statement shared Monday said. “We thank the Patriots organization for hosting this event for nearly two decades. 

“Whereas the 2026 MIAA Football Tournament begins this week, we will work diligently to secure host sites that provide the best possible championship experience for our student athletes and our school communities.”)

Regardless of wherever Division 8’s final game ends up being, whatever the mileage, the Crusaders have the opportunity to continue their unprecedented, program-defining, years-spanning streak.

“We all just have so much passion for the game,” Eldredge said. “We all love each other. We all want to be here.”