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Bunnell leads Pentucket past Amesbury in a wild one

Saturday, September, 22 By Bob Albright
Staff writer

AMESBURY | It was a great night for high school football fans | and an even better night for Nate Bunnell.

The Pentucket senior fullback scored five times and came up with a huge sack in the final minute as the Sachems outlasted Amesbury, 35-28, in a terrific river rival shootout at Amesbury's Landry Stadium.

Bunnell racked up 165 yards on 14 carries and three scores on the ground. He also returned a block punt for a score and returned a kick 78 yards for another. Despite those gaudy statistics, however, it was his sack of elusive Amesbury quarterback Jared Flannigan for an eight-yard loss in the game's final minute which may have been the biggest blow as Amesbury was stopped on downs at midfield to end it.

"We knew they were good, but they were even better than we expected," said a smiling Bunnell after watching his team erase a 14-7 halftime deficit. "We knew we just had to take it up a notch."

Make that a couple of notches. Bunnell scored four of his TDs in the final 20 minutes as Pentucket answered both an Amesbury 83-yard kickoff return from Kevin Johnston and a game-tying Amesbury score and two-point conversion with four minutes left.

A 5-yard run from the fullback opened the scoring in the final half to tie the game at 14-14 with 4:41 to go in the third. Pentucket then added the go ahead score on defense when Dan Johanson blitzed in and blocked an Amesbury punt at the 20 with "Mr. Everywhere", Bunnell, right by his side to scoop the ball up on one bounce and take it into the end zone to put the Sachems up, 21-14.

"Nate is that kind of player and he seems to make everyone around him better," noted Pentucket's Steve Hayden. "But he can't do it alone. Everyone made plays for us."

After Johnston answered to ignite the fans in the Amesbury stands who were looking for their first win over the Sachems since 1998, a potential go-ahead two-point conversion rush was swallowed up on a nice open field tackle by Pentucket linebacker Matt Green.

Bunnell's fourth TD, a 25-yard run up the middle, made it 28-20 but the see-saw was in full motion at that point. Dave Smith's 2-yard keeper and ensuing conversion catch from Jared Flannigan tied it at 28-28 with 4:03 to play. The Indian defense, however, simply did not have an answer for Bunnell and the Sachem offense.

Facing a fourth-and-five on the Amesbury 22, Pentucket QB Jordan Silva got to the outside to pick up a huge first down as well as an extra 15-yards thanks to an Amesbury late hit. Bunnell's seven-yard TD on the next play with 1:44 to play turned it over to the Pentucket D.

"That's just a good high school football game," said Hayden. "Give our guys credit for coming back, but give Amesbury a lot of credit too. They made a lot of changes from the week before. They got down to the nuts and bolts and made some personnel changes. They're a solid team they and they have some very good players."

Flannigan was the story of the first half for the Indians. Alternating with Smith behind center, the fleet-footed QB took off towards the Pentucket sidelines on a keeper and did not stop until he found the end zone 78 yards later to open the scoring.

"I wanted a team to come out on the field Friday that was better than the one last Friday night," said Amesbury coach Thom Connors, whose team fell to Lawrence a week ago. "We did that. We had an intense, but kind of quiet and somber week of practice. The guys knew that they didn't play that well last week and the guys put in a heck of a work week and it showed."

After recovering a Pentucket fumble, Flannigan rolled to his right and found senior captain John Lannon wide open in the back corner of the end zone and Jameson Wheeler's second PAT made it 14-0 and the Indians seemingly had all the momentum | that is until Bunnell grabbed the ensuing kickoff at his own 28.

Exhibiting the type of speed you don't often find in your garden variety 6-foot-2 fullback, Bunnell broke out of a cluster of would-be tacklers and broke towards his own sidelines, racing for the answering score and leaving Amesbury speedsters Johnston and Marion Wilder in his wake.

"He's just a big strong powerful kid," said Connors. "When he got ahead of Kevin and Marion and we didn't catch him I was very impressed. I didn't know he was that fast."

Pentucket has another big river rival showdown next week when it hosts Newburyport (2-1), while Amesbury travels to Wilmington.