Sat, Oct 27, 2012
01:30 PM @
Tewksbury
| Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 |
Final |
| North Andover |
0 |
14 |
21 |
7 |
42 |
| Tewksbury |
14 |
19 |
8 |
8 |
49 |
Tough day for Knights
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TEWKSBURY – One more possession, one more touch, that’s always Casey Walsh needed.
His counterpart, Johnny Aylward and his Tewksbury High mates wouldn’t let it happen.
The Redmen locked down on the MVC Division 2 title track, eating up the final 7:44 to deny Walsh and the Knights a miracle, 49-42, here at Doucet Field.
“We needed a stop on defense, maybe once, maybe twice, but we couldn’t get it done,” said Knights’ coach John Rafferty. “We couldn’t stop the run today. That’s what it came down to. It’s as simple as that.”
Walsh, the junior in his first season at the Knight helm, enjoyed an afternoon for the ages, hitting 15 of 21 passes for 253 yards and 4 TDs. Connor-and-Brandon’s-little-brother-no-more added 12 carries for 67 yards and the other two Knight touchdowns.
“Casey is a tough kid,” said Rafferty. “He did a great job trying to lead us out of that hole.”
The only problem was that Walsh couldn’t get back on the field after slicing a 33-14 halftime hole to 49-42 with a two-yard bull rush inside the 8-minute mark.
But the Redmen, and Aylward especially, cruelly and unusually tortured the Knights on the final possession.
What stung the Knights all afternoon — third-down defense – ultimately put the lights out on this one. Three times, North Andover had a chance to force the Redmen to give it up. All three times the chains got moved, and that was it. All 13 plays on the drive, including the final two kneel-downs, were rushes.
For the day, Tewksbury converted 10 of 12 third-downs and scoring a TD on one of the two fourth-downs they faced.
“They just physically beat us. We tried a number of things, they beat us up front,” said Rafferty. “Their offensive line got it done. It’s old-fashioned football, and it sure was effective.”
The loss leaves Tewksbury (3-0) alone at the top of MVC2, needing to slay only 0-2 Methuen and 0-2 Dracut to punch its
playoff ticket.
The junior Aylward, son of Redmen coach Brian Aylward, played Walsh’s equal all afternoon long.
“He wants the ball. If he didn’t he’d probably be the wrong guy to have in there,” said the elder Aylward after watching his son run run 17 times for 122 yards and hit 7 of 9 passes for 111 yards. He threw a TD pass and ran for two other scores. “He wants the ball in those situations. He feels safe with it. He scares the daylights out of me every time he carries it …”
But Aylward is darn lethal.
North Andover, 3-4 overall, joins Haverhill on the outside looking in at 2-1 in the league.
Game Statistics:
First Quarter
T — Kevin Dick 6 pass from Johnny Aylward (Joe Poli kick) 8:11
T — Tom Casey 48 run (Poli kick) 4:17
Second Quarter
T — Eddie Matovu 1 run (Poli kick) 7:15
NA — Bubba Shkliew 21 pass from Casey Walsh (Ryan Quinn kick) 6:58
T — Matovu 4 run (kick wide) 5:06
NA — Walsh 7 run (Quinn kick) 1:00
T — Aylward 23 run (pass failed) :24
Third Quarter
NA — TYyler Whitley 7 pass from Walsh (Quinn kick) 10:29
NA — Matt Iannone 23 pass from Walsh (Quinn kick) 4:45
T — James Sullivan 26 run (Aylward rush) 2:19
NA — Whitley 32 pass from Walsh (Quinn kick) :56
Fourth Quarter
T — Aylward 3 run (Aylward to Casey pass) 8:20
NA — Walsh 2 run (Quinn kick) 7:44
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: NA — Matt Iannone 1-(-4), Nick Oswald 16-90, Casey Walsh 12-67, Bubba Shkliew 1-1; T — Aylward 17-122, Matovu 15-86, Dom Rosado 1-1, Sullivan 12-122, Casey 3-48
PASSING: NA — Walsh 15-21, 253; T — Aylward 7-9, 111
RECEIVING: NA — Tyler Whitley 5-74, Shkliew 4-56, Tyler Salois 1-8, Iannone 4-96, Dylan Petrovic 1-19
