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Pentucket rolls over fellow unbeaten North Reading, clinches share of league title

Saturday, October, 10 By David Willis
Staff writer

WEST NEWBURY — With the ball hurdling at him on a line, and a pair of defenders closing in fast, Kiernan Haley could have let the ball bounce, or called a fair catch.

Instead, the Pentucket senior fearlessly caught the ball, shook the defenders, and 65 yards later the Sachems were on the way to making a statement.

“The kick was a line drive so I had plenty of time to figure out my cuts and where my blocking was,” said Haley. “I think it was a big momentum boost. It was a stalemate at the start, but after that we took them by storm.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Haley fielded a punt, weaved his way through the defense and broke free for a 65-yard touchdown.

That gave Pentucket a lead it would never surrender on the way to a convincing 28-6 victory over North Reading in a battle of undefeated Cape Ann League Kinney Division rivals.

With the win, Pentucket improved to 5-0 on the season and clinched at least a share of the Kinney Division title and a playoff berth. The Sachems can lock down the title outright on Friday when they travel to Masconomet (1-4) for their CAL regular season finale. North Reading falls to 4-1.

“We were the underdog today, but we walked out with the win,” said Sachem star linebacker Noah Malhi. “It’s amazing. Against another undefeated team, in one of the biggest games of the weekend, we got it done. We didn’t expect to be 5-0, but here we are and we want to keep it going.”

The Sachems entered Saturday as the underdog — with one Boston paper even calling the game an “easy win for North Reading” — despite the identical records.

“This is our house and we weren’t going to let anyone stomp on our field and take it,” said fullback/linebacker Liam Sheehy. “We felt awesome, the coaches prepared us and we were ready to go. It was an awesome win.”

Sheehy played a major role in the victory. Not only did he rush for a game-high 126 yards and the clinching touchdown, he also sparked the defense from his inside linebacker position along with the likes of Malhi and senior lineman Ben Thornton.

“We knew we had to stay aggressive,” said Malhi, who made six tackles and had a huge QB pressure late. “We had to be tough because we knew North Reading was a huge challenge.”

Pentucket limited North Reading — who entered the day averaging 29.3 points a game — to just the six points while limiting star Hornets back Matt McCarthy (10 touchdowns through four games) to only 66 yards and one score.

“We knew McCarthy was going to try to bounce it to the outside,” said Sheehy, who had 10 tackles. “So we had to be ready to defend that. They love to run the ball, so we had to be aggressive.”

After Haley gave the Sachems the lead with the punt return, he added to the advantage with 57 seconds to go in the half when he broke free for a 30-yard score.

North Reading cut the lead to just one score when McCarthy scored his 1-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. But three plays later Sheehy broke his 54-yard score.

Haley then knocked down a pair of passes to force a turnover on downs, and closed out the victory with his third touchdown of the day, an 8-yard pass from Finn Graham.

“This was the toughest game we have had all year so it is huge to come out with a victory,” said Haley. “We were able to stop McCarthy and played very tough. It feels great to be undefeated, especially since no one expected it, and we have a really good thing going right now.”