RallyNorth.net

Fri, Oct 20, 2006 07:00 PM @ Amesbury

Team	Final
Hamilton-Wenham	13
Amesbury	3

Indians can't stop Generals march

Wednesday, August, 22 By John Clemeno
Correspondent

AMESBURY -- The Hamilton-Wenham passing game has grabbed all the headlines this season, but it was the Generals power running game which spelled disaster for Amesbury last night as the Indians fell, 13-3, at a windswept Landry Stadium. The loss dropped the Indians to 3-3 and put them in a major hole in the CAL Small race with a 1-1 mark. H-W improved to 4-2 and 2-0 in the conference.

"They beat us up front and they won the battle in the trenches and that made a difference," said Amesbury coach Thom Connors. "I don't think the weather was a factor, but it did keep us from running a lot of our misdirection."

Running right at the heart of the Indians' defense, the Generals put together a bruising 11-play, 62-yard drive in the final quarter that saw them convert two fourth downs, the final one coming on a fourth-and-goal at the Amesbury 1-yard line when Jake Cotter (2 TDs) barreled in right up the middle to seal it.

A huge pass play kept the drive alive. Looking at a third-and-nine, H-W quarterback Connor Sullivan hit Mike Drinkwater, who was literally wearing Amesbury DB Kevin Johnston, for a huge first down to the Indians' 31.

"The big play was that third down play and Drinkwater made an outstanding catch on sideline," said Connors. "It was great coverage by Kevin. If they had to punt in that situation and its still 7-3, it might have been a different story."

Amesbury came out in the third quarter committed to the run and put together a 13-play drive that would see the Indians march from their own 48 all the way to the H-W three-yard line before two successive losses left Jay Wheeler staring at a 29-yard field goal. For the second week in a row, the Amesbury kicker was up to the task as he split the uprights and cut H-W's lead to 7-3.

Kevin Johnston converted a key fourth-and-two on the drive which saw Amesbury churn out most of the yards running right up the middle.

"We gambled to start the second half by taking the wind," said Connors. "We wanted to see if we could get a stop and come back with a score, but we only got three out of it and that hurt. It was difficult in fourth where we were going into the wind."

The highlights were few and far between for Amesbury in the first half as the Indians were lucky to hit the locker room at Landry trailing only 7-0.

Amesbury had just 27 yards of total offense in the half and only two first downs. The hosts only crossed the midfield stripe once and that came courtesy of a bad H-W punt which was fielded on the 49 in the second quarter. One play later, however, the Generals sacked Joe Klufts and Amesbury fizzled from there.

Coming off a stellar 140-yard game against Triton the week before, Marion Wilder could not find any traction early on as he was held to just 13 yards on the ground in the opening half.

The Generals racked up 117 yard of total offense and six first downs in the opening half which saw Sullivan put it up in the air just three times due to the blustery conditions.

H-W got on the board first with an impressive 10-play, 59-yard drive on its first possession. The key play was a 26-yard hookup between Sullivan and Drinkwater.

Facing a fourth-and-1 at the Amesbury 38, H-W went for it and got the first down on a short run by Cotter, a few plays later the drive was capped when Carter plunged in from one yard out with 2:11 remaining in the first quarter.