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Methuen established the run during the game’s opening drive behind talented senior running back Jake Amodio. But the methodical drive — that took exactly 7 minutes off the clock — ended when QB Kendrick Denose completed a 25-yard TD pass to Connor Donovan. Donovan caught three balls for 75 yards. Meanwhile, Amodio rushed 23 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Methuen beat Dracut 26-13. This Methuen senior class never lost to Dracut on Thanksgiving. The Rangers won 29-20 last year on the road, 41-19 in 2012 at home and 36-13 on the road in 2011. Dracut’s last Thanksgiving win was its 19-12 victory in 2010.

ACTON — Driving for the potential winning score, Methuen turned the ball over and Acton-Boxboro marched for an insurance touchdown. A-B won the non-playoff game 28-18. "Our kids played very tough," said Methuen coach Tom Ryan. But the turnover with about four minutes left at the A-B 25 was a killer. Junior Kendrick DeNose had a big game with two touchdown runs and a 15-yard TD pass to Nick Comerford. DeNose rushed for 80 yards and Jake Amodio rushed for 75. The defense held A-B in check most of the way and Methuen led 18-14 after three quarters. "Sean Nickerson our middle linebacker played a great game," said Ryan. Comerford anchored the line while Tim Michelini (interception) and Abimelec Gonzalez (fumble recovery) also earned praise. Methuen (3-7) is off until Thanksgiving when it hosts Dracut.

METHUEN - Kendrick Denose completed 13 of 19 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 70 yards and two scores to lead Methuen to a 28-7 upset victory over Lowell. Connor Donovan caught seven balls for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Denose connected with Donovan for a 12-yard TD pass in the first quarter as the Rangers took a 7-0 lead. The two connected for another first-quarter touchdown on a six-yard pass to make it 13-0. The kick failed. Donovan scored on a 1-yard run in the second quarter and then connected with Denrose on the two-point conversion to put Methuen ahead 21-7 at halftime. Denose capped off the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 35 yard run. Jake Amodio carried 10 times for 85 yards and Nick Comerford added 7 runs for 33 yards and was 2 for 3 on point after tries. Amodio also had one run for 24 yards and John Abraham caught four passes for 39 yards.

NORTH ANDOVER — Breyin Nichols had been dreaming of the moment each and every day since early August.

So when he touched the ball, the senior captain was going to make it count.

METHUEN — Hoping to rebound from the most humbling of losses, Methuen instead once again found itself in an insurmountable hole. The kind of deficit a struggling team must avoid against a defending Division 3 state champion.

Tewksbury, ranked fifth in Eastern Mass, took advantage of the stunned Rangers, scoring on each of its first four possessions last night en route to a 34-6 Merrimack Valley Small victory. It was the Methuen coach Tom Ryan's second straight loss to the program he spent the previous 12 years as an assistant.

"We're always looking forward to a nice home game — especially against Tewksbury because coach Ryan coming from there," Methuen quarterback Mike Baglieri said. "That always gives us the extra hype. Beating a top-five team really would have meant a lot to us."

The first quarter appeared more of the same for Methuen, which was held to a mere 30 total yards in a 31-point shutout loss to Haverhill six days earlier. The Rangers were stymied offensively yet again, gaining minus-8 yards on nine first-half rushes while completing only six of their 22 pass attempts.

"The first quarter was a field-position nightmare," Ryan said.

In the meantime Tewksbury (4-1 overall, 3-0 conference) found the end zone with ease, needing only 14 plays from scrimmage to open a 27-0 lead before the scoreboard moved onto the second quarter.

Methuen had one drive of 15 plays for 30 yards, but 20 of them came via penalty. An interception by Mike Phelger set up another possession at the Tewksbury 19, but despite picking up a first down, negative plays resulted in a loss of downs at the 17.

"We had a good week of practice," Ryan said. "In fact, Wednesday was one of our better practice days we had all year. The senior leadership is great that way. There have been a lot of positive things.

"But when the lights are turned on, there are a lot of execution things we mess up. I have to prepare the kids to overcome those things."

The Rangers (1-5, 1-3) averted a second consecutive shutout when John Abraham made an acrobatic leaping catch while falling backward in the corner of the end zone on an 11-yard pass from Kendrick Denose.

"At this stage of the game, we have to prepare for the future," Ryan said.

DRACUT — Staring at the prospect of a fourth straight loss, the Methuen offense wasn't above a little trickery to get into the win column.

Unable to score in six of the previous seven quarters, the Rangers put together a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives last night to upend Merrimack Valley Conference rival Dracut 14-13.

"This means a lot tonight," Methuen coach Tom Ryan said of his team's first victory since knocking off Dracut in last year's Thanksgiving Day game. "Right now it means a lot. I'm going to (congratulate) my kids because they worked so hard.
"I'm happy for my kids right now. They needed this so much. My coaching staff needed that. I know my wife needed that, but the kids needed it most."

Mike Baglieri, who quarterbacked the Rangers into Middie territory on each of their six possessions in the game, put Methuen on the board with a 3-yard run to cut Dracut's lead to six with 6:36 remaining.

Sophomore linebacker Trevor Abdallah made the second of his three sacks to force Dracut into a three-and-out on the ensuing possession and provide the Ranger offense one more opportunity.

Methuen made it work, when wide receiver/backup quarterback Kendrick Denose hurled a reverse-option pass to John Abraham, who was pulled down at the 1 after the 41-yard completion. One play later, Baglieri provided Methuen its first lead of the season since Lawrence scored with 10 seconds left in a 43-42 Week 2 victory.

"We have a lot of trick plays we run," said Ryan, who admitted they had not run that reverse pass all season. "But it's all a matter of execution. We haven't been able to execute them early on, so we're always apprehensive to run them. Kendrick threw a nice ball."

Denose made his only pass of the night pay when he broke up a fourth-down Dracut pass at the goal line with 24 seconds left — one play after Abdallah's final sack left the Middies at the 36.

The Rangers had several quality first-half opportunities, including their first two possessions which both reached the Dracut 12 before fizzling out. In fact, in the first half, Methuen maintained possession for more than 15 minutes without a score.

"It was getting extremely frustrating," Ryan said. "I know we work a lot on possessions inside the red zone and for some reason we just couldn't push it in. The fourth quarter was fun to finish things off and rewarding for our offense."

Methuen played without leading runner Brian McAndrew, who will undergo MCL surgery on the right knee he injured while rushing for 206 yards against Lawrence. Senior Jake Amodio has been impressive and finished with 149 yards on 26 carries.

"We were getting frustrated, but the O-Line stuck with it," Baglieri said. "We practiced hard all week and took it to them."

ANDOVER — The instant the ball popped free, Kevin Chen already had his eyes on the end zone.

“There was no way I was going to dive on the fumble,” said the Andover running back/defensive back. “I knew I was going to scoop it up and score.”