RallyNorth.net

Newburyport Clippers Football '07

Sat, Oct 20, 2007 02:30 PM @ North Reading
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Newburyport 0 7 0 7 14
North Reading 0 0 0 0 0

North Reading stung by Newburyport

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Saturday, October, 20 By David Willis
Staff writer

NORTH READING | The hot start to the season for North Reading was a distant memory yesterday.

The Hornets' offense struggled against red-hot Newburyport, and a strong defensive effort could not prevent a 14-0 loss.

"The defense kept stepping up and we held them the best we could," said North Reading coach Jeff Wall. "But with the offense not moving the ball, we kept getting backed up against a wall. We kept stopping them, but we made a couple of mistakes."

The Hornets could muster only a season-low 48 yards of total offense. Their previous season low was 95 against North Andover. They managed only three first downs and never advanced into Newburyport territory. The furthest they moved was their own 40 on the first drive of the second half.

Quarterback/halfback Dino Rizzo led the Hornets with 22 yards on seven carries, while quarterback Jimmy Campbell completed three passes for 23 yards. But he also threw two interceptions.

The North Reading defense came up big early, stopping Newburyport inside the Hornets' 25-yard line three times in the first half.

But Newburyport broke through with 1:11 left in the first half, when quarterback Joseph Clancy hit Andrew Sokol on a 22-yard touchdown pass.

North Reading came back to hold the Clippers to three-and-outs on their first three drives of the second half. But Clancy put the game out of reach with an 11-yard TD pass to Chris Barry with 2:25 left in the contest.

Senior linebacker Brendan Lutz led the Hornets with eight tackles while Bobby Rosano had six, Ronnie Rossi had five tackles and a sack and Darren Hartwell had four stops. They also held Newburyport halfback Justin Burl (582 yards for the season) under 100 yards with 97.

North Reading could not take advantage of some sloppy play by the Clippers, who committed 11 penalties for a whopping 95 yards. The Hornets committed only two for 15 yards.

The lost was the second straight for North Reading (4-3, 1-1 CAL small), and third in the last four games. That after opening the season 3-0. It was the second time this season it had been shut out (13-0 to North Andover).

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