RallyNorth.net

Fri, Oct 26, 2012 07:00 PM @ Lowell

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Central Catholic	20	8	0	14	42
Lowell	7	14	13	0	34

Raiders rally, drop Lowell

 

LOWELL — Central Catholic's conference game at Cawley Stadium last night proved to be so wild, crazy and often confusing that coach Chuck Adamopoulus wasn't sure if his team's 8-point victory was unique or common place.

 

 

All that was known for sure was his Raiders scored 14 points over the game's final 9 minutes to pull out a key Merrimack Valley Conference road victory over Lowell.

 

 

"A 42-34 game is not my style," a relieved Adamopoulus said after his Raiders improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in conference. "But it was a good win. You knew coming into the season Lowell was one of those teams if you were going to win this league.

 

 

But a mere 3 minutes later Adamopoulus answered a question with: "We've had a few wins like this where we've had to come from behind. These kids think they should win games."

 

 

Central, which lead by 13 in the first quarter and by seven at half, gave up two long scoring plays in the third quarter and trailed 34-28 entering the final period.

 

 

That was when Mike Milano found his inner Tom Brady. On a fourth-and-17 snap, Central's sophomore quarterback shook off a would-be sack, made a 360-degree spin then found Cody Demers 34-yards down the middle for the winning score.

 

 

"Everything was going through my mind," Milano said. "I knew my line was going to protect me. Right when that guy came in, I made a quick move and my linemen picked him up right after that and I saw Cody Demers wide open, and he's a miraculous receiver.

 

 

Coming of age: Milano, who entered the game with four touchdown passes, enjoyed his biggest game of the season. He threw for the trifecta with touchdown passes of 30 yards to Jack Galvin and 25 to Demers in the first quarter. He finished with seven completions and 134 yards on 15 attempts.

 

 

"He's come a long way," Adamopoulus said of his signal caller. "He's very calm for a sophomore. He shows a lot of leadership."

 

 

Cool when confusion reigns: The first half appeared over after a Central punt, but the on-field timekeeper ruled the clock reading all zeros was wrong and put another 3 seconds back on. Adamopoulus vehemently disagreed.

 

 

"I wanted off the field," the Central coach said.

 

 

But instead of taking a knee at the Lowell 45, quarterback Cam Latta attempted an ill-advised screen pass to the right sidelines. The overthrown ball ended up in D'Andre Drummond Mayrie's hand and he had nothing but open space on a scamper to the end zone that provided Central a 28-21 halftime lead.

 

 

"Earlier in the game they hurt us with that screen," Drummond-Mayrie said. "They had the back come out and cut me ... We were in man coverage this time. I shoved the cut block and saw the ball come at me. didn't even know if I'd caught it, I just took off."

 

 

Laying down: Leading by one, Central finished the game's scoring on a 34-yard run by Santino Brancato with 2:04 left on a play Lowell allowed the senior to run untouched in order to get the ball back.

 

 

Coming up big: After watching Latta complete nine-of-11 attempts in one stretch, Central finally got a pass rush going that harried the Lowell quarterback into missing 11 of his final 12 attempts which included Ryan Doherty's second pick of the night on Lowell's final play.

 

 

"We just stepped up," Doherty said. "We knew they weren't hurting us on the run, they were hurting us on the deep ball. But we just stepped it up, and shut down the deep ball."