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Lynn English Bulldogs Football '16

Fri, Oct 28, 2016 07:00 PM @ North Andover
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Lynn English 8 0 0 6 14
North Andover 8 6 8 0 22

Knights bend but won't break

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Monday, October, 31 By Mac Cerullo

NORTH ANDOVER — Bend, don’t break. That was the mantra for North Andover football Friday night. 

Facing a slow and methodical Lynn English offense, the Scarlet Knights defense found itself on the field for nearly the entire game. But the unit was able to eliminate the big play, and the offense took advantage of its chances to help North Andover pull out the 22-14 non-playoff win.

“Our front seven did a good job,” said North Andover coach John Dubzinski. “I know [English] had a lot of rushing yards but points matter, yards don’t really matter, so I’d say the front seven did a good job not giving up the big play. They gave up three, four, five, six, seven here, but there were no 70 or 80-yard plays so I’d say the front seven did a great job holding their gaps.”

Not including the final drives of each half, in which North Andover mostly just knelt the ball to kill the clock, the Scarlet Knights only had four offensive possessions the entire game. But the Knights didn’t waste those opportunities, scoring on each of the first three, including a critical 55-yard touchdown by Darren Watson off a screen pass from Jake McElroy early in the third quarter.

That gave North Andover a 22-8 lead, which proved especially important after English followed it with a 19-play drive that took 12:31 to complete. Starting at 9:10 in the third quarter, English continuously pounded the rock up the middle and around the tackles. English was set back by two false starts and an illegal shift, but converted two third downs, then two fourth downs, before finishing the drive with a 13-yard passing touchdown with 7:29 to play in the game.

North Andover broke up a pass in the end zone on the two-point try, but didn’t get anywhere on the ensuring possession. The Knights settled for a punt for touchback, giving English the ball one more time for a chance to tie the game. 

Over the ensuing minutes, the Bulldogs drove all the way to the North Andover 22, but this time the Knights came up with the big stop to end the drive. After a false start and a stuffed run on third down, North Andover forced an incompletion in the end zone on 4th and 7 to put the game away.

“Lynn did a great job, they controlled the clock, definitely, they have that methodical offense with the double tight ends and the double wings, and our kids did a good job tightening up down here and keeping them out of the end zone,” Dubzinski said. “Having the lead in the second half was huge too because that offense takes a lot of time off the clock to get going, so that score to Darren was huge and stopping the two-point conversion was a big play as well.”

North Andover’s other scores came on a 2-yard score by William Testa and a 1-yard run by Watson in the first and second quarters respectively. The Knights led 14-8 at halftime, and Watson finished as the team’s leading rusher with 72 yards on 12 carries. Lynn English had 160 yards on 37 carries, most of those courtesy of Ishmile Bangura, who had 109 yards on 17 carries.

North Andover improves to 3-5 with the win. The Knights will be back next week against an opponent to be announced.

Game Statistics:

First Quarter

LE — Ishmile Bangura 12 run (Matt Severance run), 4:17

NA — William Testa 2 run (Testa run), 0:19 

Second Quarter

NA — Darren Watson 1 run (kick failed), 2:39

Third Quarter

NA — Watson 55 pass from John McElroy (McElroy run), 9:10

Fourth Quarter

LE — Jonathan Kosmas 13 pass from Severance (pass failed), 7:29

 


INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING: NORTH ANDOVER (28-139) — Darren Watson 12-72, William Testa 9-44, John McElroy 7-23; LYNN ENGLISH (37-160) — Ishmile Bangura 17-109, Miguel Ramos 5-22, Jonathan Kosmas 4-17, Josue Matul 3-14, Stravensky Gaston 4-5, Matt Severance 4-(-7) 

PASSING: NORTH ANDOVER — John McElroy 4-4-0, 77; LYNN ENGLISH — Matt Severance 5-10-0, 53

RECEIVING: NORTH ANDOVER — Darren Watson 1-55, Nicholas Tierno 2-13, Kyle Lever 1-9; LYNN ENGLISH — J.C. Gonzalez 2-27, Jonathan Kosmas 2-21, Juan Avelino 1-5

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