RallyNorth.net

Lawrence fumbles at Lowell

Friday, September, 23 By Hector Longo

LOWELL - Presented with the opportunity to make history, Lawrence High's footballers simply didn't handle it well.

In fact, they kicked, dribbled it and fumbled it away in the drizzle at Cawley Stadium last night, tumbling to Lowell and R.J. Noel, 21-0.

"It's very disheartening, considering we started so well (beating Reading). We didn't play good last week and we won," said Lancer coach Mike Yameen, whose club was bidding to be the first 3-0 Lancer team since 1980, a team that eventually ran off seven straight to open the year. "That was a good sign, because usually we get killed in those situations. But this is two weeks in a row, we're not playing good football."

Victory slithered from the Lancers' grasp in a first half which saw Lawrence denied twice inside the Lowell 5-yard line.

"The first half we didn't make plays. We dropped some balls, two trips inside the 5, had a couple turnovers and a big miscue on defense to give them their first touchdown," said Yameen.

Noel, who put up 643 yards of total offense last week in a loss to Nashua South, wasn't nearly as prolific.

But he was lethal.

The senior clicked on a 60-yard, first-quarter TD hookup with Jack Galvin to give Lowell the quick 7-0 lead.
The teams combined for fewer yards (59) in all the rest of the plays of the opening half.

Lowell rectified things at halftime, and Lawrence didn't.

The Raiders —  well basically Noel (19 carries, 148 yards) — found daylight on the read-option, scoring on runs of 43 and 15 yards to bust it open.

"The two big runs were just blown assignments on our defense," said Yameen. "We had specific assignments, our guys didn't follow them. He made us pay."

Lawrence, which came in averaging 27.0 points a game, struggled mightily with "Super Seve" Kelvin Severino (knee injury) and Fidel Pichardo (suspension from last week) on the sidelines.

Lowell bottled up Nathan Baez in the backfield all night as the Lancers managed only 163 yards and turned it over four times.

The good news for Lawrence is that both backfield starters should be back next week, and this loss was only a 1-pointer in the MVC race. Lawrence, with last week's win over Tewksbury, is the only MVC Division 2 team with any points on the board.