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Whittier clinches playoff berth in shutout win

LYNN — For the second time in two weeks, head coach Kevin Bradley was treated to a Gatorade shower by a few of his celebratory players.

“You know, the feeling is fantastic. It never gets old. I could take this all the time,” Bradley said.

That’s because for the third time in the past four years, Whittier will be making an appearance in the playoffs.

The Wildcats assured themselves of that by earning their fourth conference win (eighth overall) with yesterday’s 24-0 victory over Lynn Tech. It’s also the third-straight week the Wildcats have blanked an opponent.

“These kids really worked for it. It didn’t just happen, they made it happen,” said Bradley, “They really dedicated themselves, and they don’t take things for granted.”

It was slow in the early goings for both teams as the fog began to lift from Manning Field in Lynn, but the Wildcats were able to put together a nice 8-play, 30-yard drive that had them on Lynn’s 22-yard line halfway through the opening frame. However, Carlos Candelario fumbled the ball after a 2-yard run, his third rush of the day, handing possession over to the Tigers.

“Carlos felt bad, and he’s very smart, so he saw the momentum change. We just left him alone because you know Carlos is going to bounce back and do Carlos’ thing,” said Bradley.

Following the fumble, the Tigers drove all the way down to Whittier’s 3-yard line, but were stuffed on four straight goal-line tries. The defense was clicking on all cylinders, and Ryan Tragakis came up huge on second down when he blew through the offensive line to force quarterback Dustin Rooney to fumble, dropping the Tigers back another 3 yards.

“You know, we move, move, move the ball, and then we fumble. It was the worst thing. But the turning point was the defense making that goal-line stand. From that point on, we knew we were ready to go,” Bradley said.

‘Ready to go’ may be an understatement as the Wildcats went on to score a pair of touchdowns within five minutes of each other to close out the first half.

First, Mat Burke narrowly missed having a huge touchdown run as he was pulled down by a pair of Lynn defenders after a 58-yard gain that put the Wildcats on Lynn’s 14-yard line. After a 2-yard Candelario run, Dillion Ryan took it wide left after faking a pitch and dove in to the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown run.

Said Ryan, “I was just trying to get to that pylon. Those kids chasing me were pretty fast.”

Next, it was Burke’s turn to get on the board as he capped a 7-play, 35-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown run of his own. Burke was just one of 11 backs to get at least one carry in Whittier’s 45-rush, 285-yard performance as starting back Bryan Trickett – who had three tackles for a loss – was strictly used on defense due to a nagging injury.

“Everyone had to step up: Carlos, Burkey, Tyler Page, Nate Allen…,” Bradley said. “It was a running back by committee out there, and they all stepped up. I was very proud of all of them.”

According to Bradley, Trickett is dealing with typical season long wear-and-tear and will aim to rejoin the offense when Whittier takes on Hudson-Catholic on Thanksgiving Day.

Ryan rounded out the scoring when he found Damian Colman on the right side for a 20-yard touchdown strike. Ryan had targeted Colman several times on similar routes throughout the game only to see the ball get dropped or have the play broken up, so it was a relief for the junior quarterback to see his favorite target shake a defender after making the catch and run it in 5 yards for the score.

“That was great. Damian’s my go-to guy. He’ll go up there for anything, and I was confident in him today. I knew he’d go up and get one,” said Ryan.

Bradley was especially impressed with the poise shown by Ryan, who wasn’t able to rely on having one of the Commonwealth Conference’s most devastating runners in the backfield today.

“What people tend not to notice is his ball handling when guys are in motion, and his offensive reads, and understanding which way we’re going to go,” Bradley said. “And Dillion does all that. He’s a very intelligent quarterback. He made some great plays on the ground, and in the air, too. It was really one of his finest games.”