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Northeast Metro, Greater Lawrence

WAKEFIELD — Greater Lawrence was unable to overcome a scoreless first half, losing to the Northeast Knights 26-20.
The Reggies had many opportunities in the second half to take a lead, but were stopped by a strong Northeast defense that gave them trouble all night.
Northeast took a 12-0 lead heading into the locker room at the half. Greater Lawrence bounced back in the second half.
“Hold them and start scoring,” head coach Tony Sarkis said he told his players during the half.
The Reggies’ first drive of the second half ended in a short touchdown pass from quarterback Juan Carlos Gomez to Chris Rocker.
“We ended up getting the ball right away,” said Sarkis. “We ended up scoring on that first run and that helped us out emotionally.”
The defense came in and forced a punt. The Reggies then drove 75 yards, culminated in a 60-yard rush by Angel Rivera, tying the score. The Knights, though, came right back, scoring on a 49-yard rush by Christian O’Leary with 1:48 left in the third to take a 20-12 lead.
Greater Lawrence was poised to tie it up, but a 59-yard drive stalled.
“Coming down and not scoring on the 2-3 yard line really killed us,” said Sarkis. “That hurt us emotionally and that would have been a big swing for us.”
With 3:43 left, the Reggies did score the equalizer on a 10-yard pass from Juan Carlos Gomez to Rocker, for their second TD connection of the evening. The two combined for the conversion pass and the game was deadlocked at 20-20. The hosts, however, had one final answer. Dan Martin scored his third TD of the game, crashing in from four yards out.
The Reggies returned the kick to their own 43 but an interception on the first play from scrimmage ended any hopes of a comeback victory.