RallyNorth.net

Fri, Sep 18, 2009 07:00 PM @ Catholic Memorial

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Haverhill	0	6	0	0	6
Catholic Memorial	7	0	13	7	27

Hillies luck runs out against Knights

Saturday, September, 19 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

 WEST ROXBURY – If it weren’t for bad luck, Haverhill wouldn’t have any at all.

Catholic Memorial returned the opening kick of the second half 89 yards for a score and Haverhill fumbled on the goal line in its sole chance to get back into the game in the fourth quarter, falling to the Knights 27-6.

 

Sophomore quarterback Connor Tufts, in his second varsity game; found Malcom Novello twice streaking down the sideline for 70 total yards. Novello’s first catch came late in the first half after he beat man-to-man coverage and made a marvelous diving grab in the end zone.

 

Trailing 20-6 late in the third quarter, Tufts led the Hillies on an 11-play, 82-yard drive to the goal line but a would-be touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter was fumbled as Blaine Joia, who made a tricky catch in traffic, tried to extend his arm for the score. After CM recovered in the end zone forcing a touchback, quarterback A.J. Doyle led the Knights down the field 80 yards in nine plays, capped with a 17-yard touchdown strike to Armani Reeves to seal the Hillies’ fate.

 

“It was a tale of two halves,” said Haverhill head coach Tim Briggs. “In both halves we lost, but we were in this football game the entire first half.

 

Briggs continued, “The turning point in the game was (CM’s) kick return for a touchdown, no doubt about it. That sucked the life out of us. We have to learn how to play a full football game.”

 

Tufts completed five of 11 passes for 113 yards and gained another 71 yards on 16 carries.

 

“He was composed at times and there were times when he looked like a young quarterback,” said Briggs. “He is a young quarterback, so that’s okay. He took a couple of big hits and kept coming back. (CM lineman) Keshaudus Spence really nailed him a few times; he’s the best player we’ll see. ”

 

Defensive inemen Jeremy Giampiola, and Kyle Sullivan put the heat on Doyle from the left side just as Miles Miller was doing from the right side of the line, sacking the CM quarterback twice and pressuring him into throwing an interception to Joia in the second quarter.  

 

“We did some things very well but we didn’t play a full football game,” Briggs said. “Then we took some bad penalties which didn’t give us good field position or did give them good field position, and it wasn’t the type of game we wanted to play.”

 

Haverhill’s offense totaled a meager 231 yards, but the Hillies’ defense limited CM to just 204 – including just 63 yards on the ground – after allowing 254 yards (155 on the ground) last week against Malden. Haverhill’s offense almost doubled its 138-yard performance from last week.

 

 

“We started to find a good rhythm on offense but we didn’t have it for the entire game,” Briggs said. “And even though we were moving the ball a bit, we weren’t scoring points.”