RallyNorth.net

MANCHESTER — Whittier coach Kevin Bradley’s plan against Manchester Essex was simple.

Hold onto the ball.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands,” Bradley said. “Everybody likes to talk about our passing game but we can run it too, I have a lot of confidence in the run game and it worked well today. We played smashmouth football on both sides of the ball.”

Pentucket's field hockey team had powerhouse Manchester Essex tied at halftime, 1-1, before finally dropping a 3-1 decision.

 "They've been killing everyone, but we played very well against them," said Pentucket coach Ruth Beaton. "We'll take this kind of effort any time."

In a rivalry that has been big "since (North Andover head coach Courtney Breen) was in high school," Manchester-Essex handed North Andover its first loss of the year, 2-0. After the Hornets struck for two goals in the first six minutes of play, Steph Twomey turned aside a first-half penalty stroke and Meg Foster played a shutout second half in net for the Scarlet Knights (7-1-2). Amanda Foote was a bright light for North Andover as were forwards Alie Moen and Michelle Martin.

 PEABODY — Greater Lawrence failed to hold on to a 13-0 halftime lead ,and a 20-13 lead with just two minutes to play, and fell to Manchester Essex 26-20 in overtime.

Trailing 13-7, Manchester tied the score at 13 when quarterback Alex Carr hit Brian Ciccone for a 76-yard score. Greater Lawrence, however, took the lead on the ensuing kickoff when Anthony Ocasio went 76 yards for the TD.

Manchester-Essex had no defense for North Andover, losing 7-0. Senior Nathalie Spina and sophomore Alex Medlock sparked the shutout effort for the Scarlet Knights (3-2-1) while two goals each from Liv Boudreau and Jenna Armstrong propelled the offense.

Brothers Gareth and Evan Dudney were responsible for all the goal scoring in North Andover's 4-0 shutout of Manchester-Essex. Senior Gareth netted a hat trick while freshman Evan took a feed from his brothers and notched the Scarlet Knights' second score.

Opening day translated into a sparkler for the North Andover boys and girls cross country teams,which swept Amesbury and Georgetown.
Ally Brillaud, a senior, picked up her first career victory in the girls meet.
For the boys, both winner Max O'Brien and runner-up Darryll Varney snapped the old Georgetown course mark in a sweep.

Led by Jason Steele's 36-point effort, Pentucket grabbed its first golf victory of the young season, 140-114 over Manchester Essex at Bradford Country Club.

"Jason's a very consistent player," said coach Jayne Beaton. "He's always shooting in the mid-30's for nine holes."

April Surette racked up 22 big saves as Georgetown dropped Manchester Essex, 18-11, to advance to the Division 2 North second round. Shannon Hartford lived up to the hype while leading the offense with 11 points (six goals, five assists), and Kelly Burke chipped in a hat trick to go along with three assists. The Royals will face the winner of today's Pentucket-St. Mary's of Lynn tilt on Thursday..

Despite coming out flat to start the game, Triton showed a lot fighting spirit coming from down three goals in the first half, battling in the first overtime before eventually falling in double OT.