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Amesbury Indians Football '06

Sat, Sep 23, 2006 01:30 PM @ Pentucket
Team Final
Amesbury 7
Pentucket 21
Pentucket's Liam Crawford stiffarms Amesbury's Jared Flanagan Saturday afternoon. » Jim Vaiknoras, Staff Photographer

Sachems run ragged over Indians

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Wednesday, August, 22 By John Clemeno
Correspondent

WEST NEWBURY | The future certainly looks bright for the youthful Amesbury Indians, but in order to get there, they'll need to exorcise past demons.

The Pentucket Sachems, who've beaten the Indians seven consecutive times, would qualify as one of those demons. After the Sachems graduated 18 seniors and looked vulnerable in season-opening losses to Hamilton Wenham and Ipswich, this year appeared to be the one for Amesbury to end the losing streak.

But the youngish Sachems turned to their veterans Saturday to efficiently dispatch the Indians, 21-7, at Pentucket Regional High School.

"I don't know about writing Pentucket off or writing us in, but we expect a tough game every week and this was a good team win," said Pentucket coach Steve Hayden. "We're young and the kids played with a little excitement today. They played pretty well. And some of our captains stepped up and it was nice to see."

Senior captain Jeff Puopolo rushed for 113 yards and scored twice while junior Nate Bunnell chewed up 165 yards of turf and found the end zone once to lead the Sachems (1-2). Each back, running behind senior left tackle Ryan Silvestri scored third quarter touchdowns, increasing the home team's seven-point halftime lead to 21 and putting the game out of reach.

"This was really going to be a game where we had to see where we were at," said Amesbury coach Thom Connors. "You know, a real measuring stick for how far we've improved. We're real young and we're not quite ready to play up at the next level. I think we will be before this is all over, but right now I think we showed our youth. "

Offensively, the Indians could get little traction against the Sachems, which held the duo of Dominique Houston and Marion Wilder to 32 first-half rushing yards.

Near the end of the second quarter with the game scoreless, the Sachems took over after a punt near midfield and rode Bunnell to the Amesbury 26. From there, Puopolo took the handoff on an inside reverse and bounced it outside where he found a path to the end zone to give Pentucket a 7-0 lead.

Pentucket seized control of the game in the third quarter when Puopolo's 46-yard run set up the Sachems inside the red zone. Bunnell then followed the left side of the line behind Silvestri for a 17-yard touchdown run and a two-touchdown lead.

"Ryan's our leader offensively, you know, he's our best tackle and our best blocker," said Hayden. "Offensively, we blocked a lot better this week. We came off the ball better."

Less than a minute later, Bunnell recovered a fumbled snap at Amesbury's 31. It took seven plays for the Sachems to cover the distance with Puopolo accounting for the final six yards to give Pentucket a 21-0 lead.

The Indians got on the board with 13 seconds left in the game, when sophomore QB Dave Smith hit Justin Clough for a 17-yard touchdown pass.

"By no means am I discouraged," said Connors. "We know where we're coming from and we'll keep improving each week. I think we can play with these guys. I think we can play with all these teams in this league."

Pentucket's next game is Friday night (7) at Newburyport while Amesbury heads home for a tough Friday night (7) encounter with Wilmington.

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