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Dragon leads Pentucket over Triton

Thursday, November, 24 By Jeff Hamrick
Correspondent

BYFIELD – Possession might be meaningful where the law is concerned, but it means nothing on a football field.

Pentucket was on the short end of almost all the offensive numbers yesterday except where it counted most. The Sachems twice rebounded from deficits of eight points or more and knocked off Triton 30-28.

The win left Pentucket (6-5, 3-2) tied with Winthrop for second in the Cape Ann League/Northeastern Conference Division 3.

Even though the Vikings (6-5) ran 33 more plays and held possession almost 12 minutes longer than the Sachems, it was a defensive stand that preserved the win for Pentucket.

Triton, which led 12-0 early in the second and 22-14 midway through the third, used a 15-play, 74-yard drive to close within two on a 5-yard run by Derek Paquette with 1:54 left. But senior linebacker Nolan Dragon stuffed Paquette on the ensuing two-point conversion.
“They’d been running that play the whole way down the field,” said Dragon, who also powered offense with 140 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. “So I figured they’d stick with it. That was basically the game right there.”

Pentucket recovered the following on-side kick and later ended the game on Cody Rothwell’s second interception of the day.

Pentucket managed only three plays from scrimmage while watching Triton grab an early 12-0 advantage.

The Sachems rebounded behind Dragon, who broke his leg in last year’s Thanksgiving game. The senior turned a fourth-and-one rush into a 55-yard touchdown run before cashing in on a 15-yard scoring run that to make it 14-12 at the break.

“It looked like it was going to be a long day,” said Pentucket coach Steve Hayden, whose squad had 10 first downs – 13 fewer than Triton. “We went for it on a fourth down, and Nolan had a great, tremendous run that gave us new life.”

A Ryan Clay field goal and a second touchdown run by Paquette, who had 161 yards and three scores, put Triton back on top 22-14. The Sachems, however, followed with their best drive of the day, going 80 yards on 12 plays. Nick D’Agostino’s 4-yard touchdown and Sean Brennan’s conversion tied the score at 22.

Three plays later, Rothwell came up with a huge interception of a Blaise Whitman pass that set up Dragon’s final touchdown for a 30-22 lead with 7:20 remaining.

“During halftime, we saw it happening,” said Rothwell, a transfer from St. John’s Prep. “They got us on (the same route) twice, so at halftime we made adjustments. I went outside an read it. He overthrew it a little and I took it.”
Triton took more than 5 minutes off the clock en route to the game’s final score, but still came up short.