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Billerica overcomes DeSouza

NORTH ANDOVER — Billerica coach Duane Sigsbury could only marvel at the performance of North Andover junior Gabe DeSouza.
“What a phenomenal athlete,” said Sigsbury. “On that touchdown pass, we had two guys on him and he still made an incredible catch.”
That play, a 43-yard fly pattern over the middle from Jake McElroy, tied the game, 21-21, with 5:29 remaining in the game. Unfortunately, that left plenty of time for the Indians to come back and score to prevail with a 28-21 victory, handing the Knights (4-1) their first loss of the season.
“I felt pretty good getting the ball at that point,” said Sigsbury. “I thought we could keep running the ball. They have some great athletes but I thought it came down to the trenches and we did a good job.”
Trailing 14-7 at halftime after Darren Watson rushed for a pair of Knights’ TDs, Billerica dominated the line of scrimmage after halftime, converting two long drives by primarily running the ball while holding North Andover to successive three-and-outs.
After giving up two straight touchdowns, the Knights struck back quickly in five plays to tie it, 21-21, with DeSouza catching three passes for 72 yards, capped off by his highlight TD catch.
The Indians (3-2) then drove 62 yards in 11 plays, taking more than four minutes off the clock, to score the game-winner on a three-yard run by Pat Quinn with 1:11 left to play.
The Knights moved up the field with two completions for 27 yards but two straight sacks of McElroy prevented a last-gap effort at tying the game.
Billerica, which rushed for 230 yards, showed dominance up front in the second half by controlling the ball for more than 14 of 22 minutes and allowing the Knights to rush just six times, none over two yards. And, with three of those six times being sacks, the North Andover total on the ground in the second half was minus-22 yards.
DeSouza, meanwhile, finished with 10 catches for 170 yards and McElroy, when he had time to pass, played well, completing 15 of 26 passes for 216 yards.
“The biggest thing is that we had a tough third quarter,” said North Andover coach John Dubzinski. “They did a good job up front and we didn’t handle it.
“It was a tough game to lose, but we’ll try to use it as a learning experience and move on from here.”