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Rangers roll past defending champs

Friday, October, 10 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

METHUEN — A packed house stormed the field at Methuen’s Nicholson Stadium last night, swarming the Rangers’ football team that just finished dominating the defending MVC and Division 1A Super Bowl champions Chelmsford, 34-7.

“This puts Methuen football back on the map,” said quarterback Matt Bartlett, who threw for 172 yards and a pair of touchdowns in what is one of the bigger upsets in recent memory for the Rangers. “This is one of the biggest wins since I’ve been here. We’re moving in the right direction, and tonight shows that. I’m so proud of this team. It’s such a good feeling to start to see all of our hard work paying off. Our seniors have had some ups and downs, and whether it be the seniors, or our younger guys, tonight shows that this program is getting itself back on the map, and we’re moving in the right direction.”

The Ranger faithful, including a large group of Pop Warner players on hand for pre-game festivities, filled the end zone after the handshake, with plenty of celebratory hugs and handshakes all around.

“We expected to win, and it’s all due the hard work that the kids and the coaches have put in,” said Methuen head coach Pat Graham. “We knew we were playing a very good football team, but we knew we could win.”

Matt’s brother, Mike Bartlett, pounded his way for 245 yards on just 18 carries, including rushes of 45 and 66 yards. He had three touchdowns on the ground, and added another through the air, catching a 10-yard pass from his brother at the end of the first half.

“Mike ran the ball well, and I had time to throw,” said Matt Bartlett. “That’s because of the big boys up front. I had no pressure all night. On that first drive, we had a couple of third downs and between the line doing just a tremendous job, and our receivers creating some space for themselves, we were rolling.”

Methuen put more points on the board in last night’s win than they did in the last four years against the Lions, combined.

The Rangers’ front seven was spectacular, holding Chelmsford to just 27 yards rushing and forcing two fumbles. Linebacker Justin Marsan was all over the field, totalling 12 tackles, and was in on both fumble hits.

“I’m happy for our guys,” said Graham. “Last year, and this year, they’ve really been working hard and to finally watch them get rewarded for their effort in a big game like this is great to see. Now, obviously there is a lot more football left to play, and we realize that this isn’t the end of our season. There is a lot left and to keep this rolling we need to keep working as hard as we had been.”

The Rangers frustrated Chelmsford’s tricky offense, which included alternating between Mike Crafts and Aaron Everleigh at quarterback.

“There were some tendencies there and our guys did a good job of picking them up,” said Graham. “It was something that we had to keep an eye on, but we did a nice job of neutralizing it.

Continued Graham, “We did a real good job of taking away things we knew they wanted to do. We knew the type of effort it was going to take to beat a team like this, and our guys did what they needed to. They deserve this one.”

After going 2-9 last season, Graham’s first at the helm, the Rangers are off to a 3-3 start, including wins against Tewksbury and Bishop Fenwick. Next week, they’ll travel to Lowell followed by a bye week before a huge test against Central Catholic on Halloween night at Lawrence Stadium.

“There is still a lot of work to do,” said Graham. “You take a look at our remaining schedule, and it’s not easy. We’re going to need efforts like this one every night if we want to win games.”