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Lawrence Lancers Football '11

Thu, Nov 24, 2011 10:00 AM @ Salem
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Lawrence 12 21 6 7 46
Salem 8 8 6 6 28

Pena steal locks up Lancer win

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Thursday, November, 24 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

SALEM — On a day dominated by the offenses, Chris Pena broke Salem’s back with a defensive gem.

Midway through the third, the Lawrence High junior ripped the ball from Salem superstar Jerickson Fedrick’s arms, spun and raced 19 yards for his first career touchdown. Trailing 39-16, the Blue Devils never recovered, falling 46-28 before about 450 fans here at sun-splashed Grant Field.

“I stripped the ball from him last year, and I wanted it again,” said Pena. “This time I just saw the end zone, and I took the ball in. I’ve imagined it so many times, played it over in my head, but it’s a lot different, actually doing it. There was one guy chasing me, but he wasn’t going to stop me.”

If Pena scored the knockout blow, it was the Lancer offense that softened up Salem, scoring touchdowns on all five possessions in the opening 24 minutes, during which Lawrence built a 33-16 lead.

“We were fired up. We know we’re a better football team than most of the teams we played,” said quarterback Nate Baez, who noted he and his teammates were ignited by pre-game predictions that had Salem winning big. “We just hadn’t shown up.”

Too fast, too creative and often times too small to locate, the 5-foot-3 Baez closed out his career with a brilliant performance.

In the opening half alone, he hit on 9 of 12 passes for 164 yards and added 99 yards on eight carries. He opened the scoring with a 43-yard TD dash and connected on TD passes of 39 yards to Mario Encarnacion and 12 yards to Joel Rodriguez.

“We didn’t worry too much about their coverages, because it looked like we could run anything we wanted,” said Baez. “We ran it that well.”

Without much big-play capability, Salem tried to grind its way back into the game, riding Fedrick (27 carries, 171 yards) and Abner Rodriguez (17 attempts, 95 yards).

Fedrick finished his immense season with 243 carries for 1,801 yards with 27 touchdowns.

But this morning belonged to the Lancers, who presented assistant coach Bobby Farrington with the game ball in the victory. The former Lancer baseball/football standout is battling brain cancer.

Lawrence finished up at 5-6 for the year, while Salem — a New Hampshire Division 1 semifinalist — ends its year at 7-5.

Game Statistics:

First Quarter

L — Nate Baez 43 run (rush failed), 10:45

S — Mike Downing 4 run (Jerickson Fedrick rush), 6:05

L — Jiovanny Vasquez 1 run (rush failed), 1:18 

Second Quarter

L — Mario Encarnacion 39 pass from Baez (Baez rush), 11:54

S — Fedrick 9 run (Abner Rodriguez rush), 8:44

L — Vasquez 3 run (rush failed), 3:52

L — Joel Rodriguez 12 pass from Baez (Kelvin Severino kick), 0:37

Third Quarter

L — Chris Pena 19 fumble return (rush failed), 6:22

S — Rodriguez 17 run (rush failed), 1:09

Fourth Quarter

L — Severino 2 run (Severino kick), 10:50

S — Rodriguez 1 run (rush failed), 5:51 

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING: Lawrence (31-207) — Nate Baez 14-134, Jiovanny Vasquez 4-26, Brian Montero-Ford 2-9, Fidel Pichardo 2-12, Kelvin Severino 4-14, Mario Encarnacion 1-8, Marianel Garcia 3-8, Louis Rosa 1-(-4); Salem (56-297) — Jerickson Fedrick 27-171, Abner Rodriguez 17-95, Mike Downing 6-42, Rasheed Adigun 2-4, Ryan Nichols 4-(-15)

PASSING: Lawrence — Baez 9-13-1, 164; Salem — Jonathan Soldano 1-4-0, 2

RECEIVING: Lawrence — Encarnacion 2-50, Vasquez 1-8, Pichardo 2-57, Severino 2-25, Joel Rodriguez 2-24; Salem — Ryan Decker 1-2

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