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Iovanella paces North Andover past Lynnfield

Saturday, October, 13 By Steve Palladino
Staff writer

LYNNFIELD | Zac Iovanella appears to be finding his comfort zone at precisely the right time for North Andover. But the sophomore tailback will be the first to admit that his contribution during this season is more than he expected.

"I am feeling pretty comfortable in this offense," said Iovanella who ground out a game-best 177 yards and three touchdowns in North Andover's 49-21 win over Lynnfield in its final tuneup before hitting the heart of the Cape Ann League Large schedule.

Yesterday marked the third 100-yard rushing game this season for Iovanella, who has rushed for 544 yards thus far. "We are pretty young, but we are getting there," said Iovanella, who scored three of North Andover's seven rushing touchdowns in its fourth straight win.

Senior fullback Matt Burckhardt also scored three touchdowns as North Andover's ground game ran past the Pioneers to the tune of 286 yards.

"We expect to run the ball well," said North Andover head coach John Rafferty, who watched his team fall behind 14-13 in the second quarter before posting a pair of touchdowns in the final two minutes of the half.

"That was a very competitive first half," said Rafferty. "They (Lynnfield) came out flying. We had to deal with the flow in a hurry."

Iovanella took care of changing the flow of the game late in the first half when he zipped off a 50-yard dash to take North Andover out of a second-and-11 from its own nine and set up the Knights' go-ahead touchdown.

"Zac is doing a great job and he is learning on the job," said Rafferty.

North Andover kept the ball on the ground most of the day. Senior quarterback Steve Boudreau picked the precise time for his eight passes (six completions). But no air time was needed for North Andover's go-ahead score which took place when Burckhardt punched in a one-yarder to cap a seven-play drive, moving the Knights ahead 21-14 with 2:04 to play before intermission.

North Andover didn't rest on its first-half laurels and its defense gave the offense another crack at the end zone when it stopped Lynnfield on three downs.

Junior linebacker Julien Lacourse had the big stop on the drive as he registered a sack 10 yards behind the line. That sack forced Lynnfield into a punt from the shadows of its goal line and a short punt put North Andover in business at the Lynnfield 17. Four plays later, Iovanella had a one-yard run.

"We will be playing against some real physical people coming up," said Rafferty. "We have played well defensively but we have to play a lot tougher in the next few weeks. We have to get a lot more physical."