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Adames, Greater Lawrence run over Georgetown

Saturday, September, 15 By Bob Albright
Staff writer

ANDOVER | The soggy turf at Greater Lawrence yesterday morning effectively slowed down 21 of the 22 players playing upon it in the Commonwealth Conference opener for both Greater Lawrence and Georgetown.

As for the 22nd player? Well, Reggie tailback Nate Adames might as well have been running on a bone-dry cinder track.

The senior speedster racked up 243 yards on just 16 carries and scored three times as Greater Lawrence got off to its first 2-0 start in several years with a commanding 33-13 win over Georgetown.

Adames, who had 190 yards at the half, found the end zone three times on runs of 80, 43, and 4 yards, for Greater Lawrence which also got a 38 yard interception return for a score by Jonathan Delossantos off Royals' standout QB Joe Esposito (10-21, 86 yards, 2 interceptions).

"Nate is just a special back and I don't think he's even peaked yet," said Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis, who was quick to give credit to the five-man steam roller in front of Adames as well.

"Our line played great." said Sarkis. "We wanted them to come out and really get after them and that's what they did. Face mask-to-face mask we were very tough."

After trading touchdowns on each team's first possession, Adames and the Reggies pulled away | literally | late in the first quarter when the back took a handoff from his own 20 and made an 80-yard bee-line to the promise land, motoring past a pair of Royal defensive backs who had strong pursuits angles with 30 yards to go.

"I felt like when I got to the second level (of defenders) I just had to take off so nobody could catch me from behind," said Adames of his ability to punch it into overdrive.

Like his coach, Adames was quick to pay tribute to the guys up front and sees no reason why he can't duplicate the effort in weeks to come.

"I just had to give them a big hug," said Adames with a broad smile. "They just did an awesome job today. If I follow my blocks and everyone does what they are supposed to do it should be like that every week."

Along with Adames' explosion, the other part of this winning equation for Greater Lawrence was its defense which quickly built off its opening day shutout of Triton a week earlier.

After getting tagged for a pair of pass interference calls that led to the Royals' (1-1) first score | an acrobatic lunge by Brandon Wade (2 TDs) just inside the far pylon from six yards out | the Reggie secondary turned up the intensity after that and effectively grounded the Royals' vaunted passing attack.

"I think that says a lot for our kids," said Sarkis. "They could have gotten down on themselves, but instead they rallied together and came right back and scored."

Middle linebacker John Cote picked off a pass and deflected two more before leaving the game after having his bell rung, and fellow defenders George Cruz and Victor Sosa (TD) were around the ball all morning as was Delossantos, whose interception return of his counterpart, Esposito, broke it open at 27-7 late in the second quarter.

Georgetown had a shot to make a game out of it in the second half when the Royals took over at the Reggie 21 after a botched punt, but could not punch it in on four successive plays from the five yard line with defensive tackle Luis Veras and a host of Reggies behind him swallowing up Royals running back Dave Kenneally on fourth down at the goal line.

"I don't know what it was today," said Georgetown coach Matt Bouchard, who, in stark contrast to the masses staring back at him from the other sideline, had just 29 players at his disposal.

"It didn't seem like we were clicking initially on offense and then when we were we broke down defensively. The second half we moved the ball and tightened things up, but it's just that we didn't come out in that first half and do the things we had to do."

Greater Lawrence will look to make it 3-0 when it hosts Whittier next Saturday in a big early season CAC Large showdown, while Georgetown has a bye.