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Greater Lawrence falls out of title chase

Saturday, November, 14 By Jeff Hamrick

LYNN — On a night Joe Pizzuto added his name to a very elite group of running backs, Greater Lawrence was knocked out of the Commonwealth Conference Large title hunt.

Despite receiving 274 rushing yards from Pizzuto, the Reggies were unable to overcome several big plays by Lynn, which took a 28-18 victory last night. Pizzuto, who had 47 carriers, became the third area player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, finishing the game with 2,011, since the Eagle-Tribune began compiling complete records in 1994. The diminutive Pizzuto, however remains far from the school record of 2,647 set by Nate Adames in 2007. Londonderry's Alex Theodhosi ran for 2,041 in 2007.

"Our whole idea tonight was to attack Pizzuto from the corners with blitzes and stuff like that," Lynn Tech coach Gary Sverker said. "He's a great runner. All we could do was try to slow him down."

Pizzuto didn't help his teammates though, losing two of his three fumbles as the Reggies (7-3 overall, 2-2 conference) turned over the ball four times on their six fumbles.

"You're not going to win a game against — I don't care who it is — fumbling the ball six times," Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis said. "We also made a lot of mental mistakes. We controlled things I think, but when it came down to when we needed to make plays, we'd drop the ball or we'd be offsides. Take nothing away from Lynn Tech. They came to play and were hitting."

What the Wildcats (7-3, 3-2) were hitting was the big play. All four of Lynn's scoring plays were 43 yards or more, including a pair of touchdown runs of 60 and 81 yards by Ryan Murphy, who finished with 204 yards on 21 carries. On each of Lynn's touchdowns, Greater Lawrence missed downfield tackles.

"It was nice to have Murphy back," Sverker said of his big tailback, who missed a game with a thigh bruise. "But I thought our defense played great. That's a big offensive line, but the kids as a team were excited to be back home and playing. It was a great challenge for us."

After spotting Lynn an 8-0 advantage late in the first quarter, Pizzuto scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 10-yard run, but the Wildcats responded 22 seconds later with Murphy's 81-yard jaunt. The same thing happened after Pizzuto cut the deficit to 14-12 when Steven Caisse scored 20 seconds later on a 43-yard pass from Dustin Rooney following a 47-yard kickoff return.

"We were too lackadaisical, too laid back," Sarkis said. "We were just playing without enthusiasm. And that's what showed. We didn't play with any heart it seemed like."