RallyNorth.net

Lacroix, Rangers step up in Tone's debut

Friday, September, 09 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

METHUEN — It wasn’t exactly the ideal way Methuen and first-year head coach Tom Tone wanted to start the season.

First off, standout running back Ryan Savastano was forced to the sidelines by injury. Then Plymouth North, after enduring a grueling bus trip to Methuen that delayed the start of the game by 45 minutes, rattled off a convincing eight-minute first drive to take an early lead. And just 1 1/2 minutes later, the Rangers turned the ball over on a pass interception.

But the Eagles’ body blows, adding up to 30 minutes of possession time, didn’t wear out Methuen, they only knocked out some of the nervousness. The team rallied behind the poised play of quarterback/safety Eric Lacroix and thoroughly turned things around, rolling to a 27-13 season-opening victory.

“It’s tough,” Tone said. “You hope that you and the assistant coaches can build in some resilience so the guys can come back. The coaching staff did a good job keeping the kids up.”

And after that, the players lifted their own spirits starting with Josh Baez batting away a fourth-down pass to give Methuen possession with a chance to tie the game.

Converting two long third-down plays and a fourth-and-two along the way, Lacroix threw on the run and hit Dylan Doucette for a 25-yard second-quarter touchdown.

From there, the senior signal-caller took off.

“It took about one drive for us to settle down,” said Lacroix after throwing for 160 yards and two touchdowns and running for 127 yards and two more scores. “We had a lot of new guys that were nervous but they definitely got the nerves out of them. Now they’re playing varsity football.”

“I think (Eric) needed to get a little confidence,” Tone said. “We knew he could run the show, and once he got hit a little bit, he got confident and did a great job.”

After the pick, the tri-captain connected on 10 of his next 12 passes and made two plays that locked up Methuen’s victory.

Two plays into the second half, Lacroix faked a handoff to sophomore Willie Weinhold and bolted up the middle. Stiff-arming a lineman, the senior bolted into the clear and sailed 64 yards to give the Rangers a shockingly fast 14-6 lead.

“(Junior lineman) Anthony Giorgio had a great pull and block on the trap and I sprung it,” Lacroix explained.

And after a six-yard scoring toss to Corey Shepherd to start the fourth quarter, Lacroix called his own number from the Eagle 12-yard line. Linebacker John Reardon stepped up and smacked Lacroix at the three, but the QB kept enough balance to spin and extend the ball over the goal line to give Methuen an insurmountable 27-6 edge with 7:13 left in the game.

“The offensive line did a great job picking up their blitzes,” Lacroix said, “and the wide receivers were catching every single ball I threw, getting upfield for positive yardage.”

With his first victory as head coach under his belt, Tone said, “Honestly, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m usually pretty calm during games, so it’ll probably sink in later on.

“It’s not a lot different than being an assistant coach. I got nervous and excited before the game ... it was good,” Tone said with a smile.