The team that knows who's going to win Super Bowl

Sunday’s Super Bowl LI will come down to what team wins the battle of the trenches and can fend off any and all arsenals.

So, the Sun Rise asked Johnston’s real heroes – staffers at the Department of Public Works who certainly face all kinds of obstacles throughout the year – what team will win Sunday’s world football championship between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons.

Arnie Vecchione, the DPW’s “head coach” – a.k.a. director – and diehard Patriots fan for 54 years, who used to listen to games on his transistor radio back when he was 15 or 16 years old, predicts the Patriots will win, 30-26, over the Falcons.

“I think the Patriots experience will have a bearing on the outcome and will overshadow the Falcons youth and talent,” Vecchione said. “It’s ironic, but Atlanta is 25-25 in its last 50 games in stadiums with expandable roofs, and the roof in Houston will be open Sunday.”

Vecchione, who is well known for his tile work, such as the masterpiece he created inside the concession stand at Mayor Joseph Polisena Stadium, also holds a unique distinction when it comes to the Patriots playing in Super Bowls. Back in 1986, when the Patriots played the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX, Vecchione created a ceramic tile mosaic mural that featured the Patriots helmet logo in the team’s colors of red, white, gray and blue.

“I think I used 2,000 pieces of tile,” Vecchione recalled Monday. “The piece also created quite the media buzz back then. A newspaper reporter came to do a story and thought it was going to be a small 8x10 piece. He marveled when he saw it was about 2x3 feet.”

However, that was the only bright spot as far as Super Bowl XX was concerned, as Vecchione, who remembers the days of Patriots legends like Gino Cappelletti and Joe Bellino, deadpanned, “The Patriots got crushed, 46-10, by the Bears back on Jan. 26, 1986.”

But that’s all in the past and the Patriots have fared well since in Super Bowls, winning four. Sunday they will be going for a fifth in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era.

“I really like our chances,” Vecchione said. “And I know I speak for thousands and thousands of people, I would love to see Tom Brady accept the trophy from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.”

While Vecchione and most of the staffers think the game will play in the 30s, Phil Mancini, the DPW’s elder statesman, predicts a Patriots victory by the score of 45-38.

“The over-and-under is somewhere around 55 points,” Mancini, the town engineer, said. “But [Falcons quarterback] Matt Ryan is having a great year and can put points on the board. And we all know what Tom Brady can do…I think it’s going to be a high-scoring game.”

Tom Autiello, the town’s plumbing inspector who has been to two Super Bowls and saw the Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams in 2002 and when New England beat the Carolina Panthers in 2004, predicts the Pats will win, 38-21.

Meanwhile, Lori Gionis and Debbie Pavone, who work in the DPW’s second floor office, didn’t offer a prediction about Sunday’s Super Bowl but were confident about another area.

“I don’t know making football predictions,” Gionis said, “but I know I’m going to be doing a lot of cooking.”

When asked if she had a prediction, Pavone laughed, “I couldn’t say!”

Then there was Lou Fabrizio, who works in the DPW’s first floor office, who admits he’s a died-in-the-wool New York Giants fan. His prediction: Atlanta 24, Patriots 20.

But fellow staffer Sal Tanzi countered by saying “Patriots, 31-17.”

Matt Montalbano says the Patriots will win, 27-21, while Rick Perez predicts a New England victory but didn’t offer a final score. Although he was non-committal, Ron Audette wore a smile as if he is leaning towards watching the Patriots win.

“Patriots, 38-24,” says Guido Gosetti, while Ted Whiteley, who was wearing a Patriots cap, predicted “Patriots, 34-23.”

Even Robert Beauchemin, a salesman with Lawson Products who made a service call to the DPW Monday, is predicting a New England Patriots victory by the score of 31-28.

What about the Sun Rise?

Patriots! As the old adage goes: Cream always rises to the top, and Roger Goodell will have to eat crow.