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Defense dominates in Greater Lawrence win

Saturday, September, 25 By Jeff Hamrick
Staff writer

ANDOVER — Despite the presence of one of the state’s most prolific running backs, the Greater Lawrence defense is what has the Reggies excited.

One week after shutting out South Boston, Greater Lawrence stifled another opponent yesterday afternoon with a convincing 18-6 victory over visiting Manchester Essex in the Commonwealth Conference Large opener for both schools.

As the offense struggled, the Reggies’ defense was limiting Manchester Essex (0-2) to an average of 2 yards on each of its 26 first-half plays and 154 total yards for the game. Quarterback Alex Carr was intercepted three times and sacked a two more while being hassled on almost all of his 17 attempts that resulted in only 51 yards.

“It was the front four guys who put pressure on their quarterback and made him throw quickly,” Reggies coach Tony Sarkis said. “When we had pressure on (Carr) it made him throw it away, so I give credit to all four of those guys.”

Those four were defensive ends Carlos Aquino (a junior) and Jake Barchard (a sophomore) and senior tackles Marlon Orellana and Euclides Saldana.

“We work hard every day in practice,” Aquino said. “Right after the third quarter we were saying we have to make them turn it over. I put it on my shoulders to put pressure on their quarterback because that was my job this game.”

Aquino did just that late in the game with a quarterback hit that resulted in an interception by John Augusta with 2:37 remaining and Greater Lawrence holding a slim 12-6 advantage. The Reggies (3-1) responded with a 5-yard touchdown run by Christian Rivera for the final score two plays later.

“All I could think was don’t drop it,” Augusta said. “I know takeaways on defense are the most important thing. I was just in the right place at the right time and I held onto it.”

Greater Lawrence, which took a 7-0 lead early in the second on a 37-yard pass from Jean Carlos Gomez to Marcos Ortiz, rode the legs of Joe Pizzuto for its clinching touchdown.

After taking the second-half kickoff, Pizzuto ran all seven downs of a 60 yard drive which gave the Reggies a 12-6 lead. Pizzuto finished with 108 yards on 21 attempts before being relieved by Rivera early in the fourth quarter.