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Georgetown falls to Shawsheen in overtime

Saturday, September, 26 By Jeff Hamrick

GEORGETOWN — While improvement from a first week blowout was immediately evident, the final result was the same for Georgetown.

The Royals squandered a 13-point second-half advantage before dropping a non-league game 21-13 to Shawsheen yesterday afternoon. It was the first victory in three outings this season for the Rams.

"Our guys came out of a cannon," Georgetown coach Matt Bouchard said. "They were excited about the opportunity to kind of show what they could do."

One week after accumulating 24 yards in the first half, Bouchard's Royals quickly jumped to a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard run by Chris Esposito. The touchdown capped a three-play, 65-yard drive, highlighted by Tyran Harrigan's 38-yard rush on Georgetown's first play from scrimmage.

Although the Rams had some big gainers the remainder of the half, they were unable to capitilize. Tyler Harrigan ran for three yards on a fourth-and-2 play then completed a 14-yard pass to Max Mangano on an eight-play possession that ended at the Shawsheen 41. Harrigan then completed a 38-yard pass to Bryce Moker on a six-play possession that stalled at the Rams' 23.

Georgetown also had another possession that began at the Shawsheen 37 when Ryan Moriarty recovered a fumble, but ended up losing 4 yards on three plays before punting.

"I'm very proud of our effort, especially relative to last week (when Georgetown lost 32-6 to Lynfield)," Bouchard said. "I think what was missing was a lack of effort. I really don't think we gave it our all on each play."

The Royals grabbed a 13-0 advantage when Derek DePasquale returned the second-half kickoff 83 yards for a score. But Georgetown did not pick up a first down until less than a minute remained in regulation.

"We came out to play this week," Esposito said. "But when it came down to crunch time we hesitated and didn't come up to the task. We didn't execute. That's what it comes down to. We came a long way from (the first week) but we have a lot of work to do. We have to learn to execute at crunch time basically."

The Rams, who had been outscored 69-15 the previous two weeks, cut their deficit to 7-6 on a 5-yard scoring pass from Kevin White to Andrew Companeschi. White tied the score with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Cory Foss with 1:38 left, finishing off a 10-play, 53-yard drive that consumed almost five minutes.

"We challenged our guys at halftime," Shawsheen coach Albert Costabile said. "When they ran back that (second half) opening kickoff to put us down 13-0, that's when you really find out a lot about your football team. It's easy to play well when you're ahead."

In overtime, Shawsheen needed only two plays before Foss ran in from the 10 before catching a conversion pass from White for the final margin. Georgetown had a fourth-and-goal from the 4 but Harrigan was sacked for a 6-yard loss by Robert Greenwood to end the game.

"Last week we put ourselves in bad field position, and our offense gave up a touchdown," Bouchard said. "We just got behind the eight ball. This week, we continued the trend with some pretty good defensive play. Give some credit to Shawheen. In that second half they played a lot more physical on defense and put us in some tough positions. We didn't do the things we needed to do."