RallyNorth.net

Valiant Georgetown effort falls short

Thursday, November, 26 By Richard Slate
Staff writer

GEORGETOWN — Eleven plays (10 on the ground by four different players), 60 yards, 6:45 off the clock.
Those were the impressive numbers from Manchester Essex’s game-winning drive yesterday morning at Georgetown High School.

In the 50th game of the Thanksgiving rivalry, the Hornets held off a valiant effort by Georgetown, 22-14, to take a 27-23 series lead.

 
“They (Georgetown) played well, we knew Thanksgiving would come down to a game like that,” said Manchester Essex head coach Mike Athanas, whose team finished the season at 9-2. “We try to do that (spread it around). We’ve been pretty versatile all year. We try to distribute the ball evenly to keep the defense off-balance.”

In winning their third Thanksgiving game in a row, the Hornets had a nice performance from junior quarterback Alex Carr (125 yards passing, TD; 56 yards rushing, TD) while senior running back Brian Ciccone scored two touchdowns, senior running back Ben Kekeisen scored two two-point conversions, senior tight end Jim Finn had 79 yards receiving and Manchester Essex’s defense shut out the Royals in the second half.

It was a fitting send-off for the program’s 19 seniors with many of them making valuable contributions all over the field, offensively and defensively.

Tied at 14 going into halftime, the Hornets received the opening kickoff of the second half and marched into Royals territory before Carr took a quarterback draw 11 yards for a touchdown. Kekeisen followed that with a two-point conversion run which provided the final margin.

The fact that Georgetown (1-9) took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter and tied it up at 14 on the last play of the first half shouldn’t surprise anyone that’s paid close attention to this rivalry. Neither team is going to the playoffs this season but you wouldn’t have known it by watching the intensity from both sides.

Georgetown senior quarterback Chris Esposito (134 yards rushing, passing touchdown) was a force all day on offense, something that hasn’t always been the case this season for the Royals’ up and down offense.

“Defensively this year, it’s a group of guys that have a lot of desire to be successful,” said Royals head coach Matt Bouchard. “Today was the first time our offense established some consistency. I think that played into how good a game it was. Most of the season, we really had to lean on the defense.”

The Royals punted on the first drive of the game but recovered the ball at the Manchester Essex 20-yard line after the Hornets fumbled the punt.

After three straight runs by Esposito, he rolled out and found junior running back Max Mangano for a 5-yard touchdown pass. Sophomore Tyler Wade’s point-after gave Georgetown the early 7-0 lead.

Manchester Essex responded with an 11-play, 66-yard drive that ended on the first play of the second quarter when Ciccone ran for a 3-yard touchdown. His kick failed and the Royals led 7-6.

The teams traded turnovers (Hornets senior cornerback Seth Young picked off Esposito and Manchester Essex was stopped on fourth down) before a Georgetown fumble was recovered by Manchester Essex senior Doug Kenerson.

Carr hit Finn with a 42-yard strike to get it into the red zone and two plays later, Carr found Ciccone with a 12-yard fade in the corner. Kekeisen ran another two-point conversion to give the Hornets a seven-point lead (14-7).

Georgetown’s best drive of the game closed out the first half as the Royals went 59 yards in 12 plays with senior running back Tyran Harrigan taking a handoff and throwing a 16-yard touchdown pass to Esposito on fourth-and-11 from the 16-yard line.

The Hornets’ defense dominated on Georgetown’s last three drives of the game.