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LAWRENCE — Ramon Heredia had a message for teammate Alex Andrews.

“I told him that if he touches the ball on the opening kickoff, he better bring it to the house for six points,” said the senior quarterback. “We talked about it all week. He told me that if he was out there, he’d bring the kick back for a touchdown. And he did.”

Is it Lawrence-Greater Lawrence Tech for the last time?

The last time on the holiday?

Or will this rivalry, usually one that sparks wild, unexpected results, live on?

Lawrence, which stunned the previously perfect and eventual EMass. Division 3A champion Reggies a year ago, owns an 8-4-1 overall advantage against Greater Lawrence, 7-2-1 on Thanksgiving.

Lancer quarterback Ramon Heredia has gained an impressive 4,397 yards from scrimmage the last three years with 24 touchdowns and thrown 23 TD passes.

HAVERHILL - Awash in a week of tumult, anger, confusion and disappointment, Mike Yameen wondered how his Lawrence High football team would respond at Haverhill last night. The 27-point opening quarter pretty much answered the question.

“Take our wins, but you can’t take away our pride,” said the Lancer coach after his inspired gridders devoured Haverhill, 46-12, last night.

Earlier in the week, the Haverhill administration reported the Lancers’ use of an ineligible player, costing Lawrence its second most prolific season since the 1980s.

“All that was going on, we all took it personally, and we showed it on the field,” said senior quarterback Ramon Heredia, who threw a pair of long TD bombs and ran 31 yards for a third touchdown, all before the final whistle of the first quarter was blown.

“It bothered us. We were definitely bothered by the timing of the whole thing,” added senior Demetri Brown, on the receiving end of the first two scores, one a 50-yarder and the other 55. “They took our year away. We were going to come out and do it for him.”

In hindsight, it might have been a strategic mistake by Haverhill, one that galvanized the opposition behind the cause.

Coach Tim Briggs, whose Hillies fell to 1-8, disagreed. “The stuff that went down this week is called integrity. There are rules for a reason,” said Briggs. “Quite frankly, it wasn’t something that Haverhill did other than read in the newspaper that one of their friends, with the class that graduated last year, is still playing. I’d like to have Justin Cook and all those guys back this year too.”

The added motivation, combined with a slew of Hillie injuries, turned this one into an ugly mismatch just minutes in. Heredia simply ran wild, chewing up 76 yards on six carries - three for touchdowns - while hitting 10 of 17 passes for 202 yards. Brown led the pass catchers with five for 137 yards.

Haverhill show a bit of life when Tim Nutter hit nifty Noel Figuereo on an 81-yard bomb, but the joy was only temporary.

Heredia answered untouched on a 31-yard TD sweep, and his senior classmate Dimar “Tiger” Torres struck the knockout punch, picking off a pass and dashing 42 yards to paydirt for a 27-6 lead with 2:08 left in the first.

Up 33-6 at halftime, Heredia ran for his second score, a seven-yarder midway through the third, prompting the Lawrence bench to empty for an impromptu dance in the Haverhill end zone, one that was greeted by an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

Linebackers Harvey Blanco, Donea Robinson and Steve Mannion anchored a Lancer defense that allowed Haverhill 160 yards on 39 carries but pounced on four turnovers.  

BYFIELD - Like most of his Lawrence High teammates, Ramon Heredia was by no means immune to the stumble on the mudbog that was Triton's home football field last night.

At some point, though, big-play ability and talent somehow got Heredia and the Lancers over the hump, 19-15, at Triton.

WEST NEWBURY — Pentucket Regional was winless on its own turf this fall. Meanwhile, Lawrence High hadn't won a Saturday afternoon game since Mike Yameen took over in 2005.

LAWRENCE — Every time the North Andover High football team sniffed some life at Veterans Stadium last night, Anthony DeJesus popped up and choked the Knights out.

DeJesus, a lightly-regarded senior reserve when this season began, stung North Andover in all phases of the game, leading suddenly-surging Lawrence High to a 20-14, history-making win.

LAWRENCE - Benched last Friday night, buried with the second-teamers in practice Monday, Ramon Heredia hit the Veterans Memorial Stadium turf with a point to prove last night.

NEWBURYPORT — Lawrence came to Newburyport poised to shut down a quarterback widely believed to be the top passer in the Cape Ann League.

In Lawrence’s 37-23 victory over Newburyport at World War Memorial Stadium, the Lancers (2-1) had a quarterback of their own emerge as an MVP candidate in his own right.

LAWRENCE — Shain Jowett had the Wing-T drill down to a tee.

Snap, spin and deliver the handoff, two seasons full of it at the helm of "Ground" Chuck Adamopoulos’ Central Catholic offense.