Football Friday: Undefeated Generals Look to Exterminate Hornets

All season long the Hamilton-Wenham football team has proven that it can not only play with a lead, but extend upon that lead at the same time. Last Saturday, however, the Generals exhibited an even more valuable trait – . That was the story against an upset-minded Pioneers team in Lynnfield, which pushed Hamilton-Wenham to the brink of its first setback before bowing, 22-14, in OT.

“It was quite a game,” said H-W coach Andrew Morency, who got a late TD and two-point conversion rush from Elliot Burr to tie the game and then an unanswered touchdown from Trevor Lyons in the extra session to win it and keep his team perfect at 7-0. In the process. H-W handed the Pioneers (4-4) just their second loss at home in the last three years.

“We didn’t play our best football at times, but it takes a special kind of team to come back and erase a deficit late in the fourth quarter. I think it’s something that if you can live through it will only make you stronger,” said Morency.

After facing the wide-open, spread attack of Lynnfield, the Generals will now set their sights on the polar opposite when they face a 5-2 North Reading squad that has instituted the old school Single Wing this season, which is predicated on direct snaps to the ball carrier. Chances are that guy for North Reading will be Carl Lipani. The prolific junior back leads all of Division 3A in scoring with 16 TDs and 98 points in total (H-W’s Lyons (64) and Burr (52) are third and seventh, respectively.)

“They have really embraced the Single Wing as a program and they have an amazing running back,” said Morency of the Hornets, which beat Manchester-Essex, 14-0, last week for their fourth win in a row. “Watching him on film the last couple of days it’s pretty impressive. He never goes down after just one tackle and his legs always keep moving. He’s going to be one of the best backs we’ve seen.

“They’re a hungry team and they are determined. We look at this like a championship-type game at home and the kids are excited.”

Along with the usual exploits of stars like Burr and Lyons, Morency also singled out the play of two-way tackle Taylor Drinkwater and senior linebacker Kevin Anthony.

“I thought Taylor had a very consistent game against Lynnfield on both sides of the ball and watching the films we were able to see that he also made some very unsung plays that were key for us,” said the coach. “Kevin had a great game on defense and was quietly in on every tackle. He came up with some really clutch plays for us.”

North Reading at H-W, Saturday 2:30 p.m.

The Pick: H-W, 28-7. The Hornets have not faced a defense like this Generals gang.

Few Chinks in Scarlet Knights’ Armor

Coming off their – Lynn English – the Peabody Tanners will play host to the team many consider to be the class of the new fangled CAL/NEC Tier 1 when the Scarlet Knights of North Andover invade Coley Lee Field Friday night at 7 p.m.

After , the No. 18 ranked Knights (7-1, 2-0) have won their last seven, including league victories , and . North Andover also had quality wins over (5-3) and (4-4) by healthy margins. NA averages a league best 32.8 points a game and allows just 9.1 a contest, also a league best.

Brandon Walsh (11 TD passes) is one of the top triggermen around and ranks fourth in all Div. 1A scoring with 74 points. NA tailback John Iannone (12 TDs) is just two points back with 72. The Knights like to run the spread offense, but will also mix in some Power I and hammer away with Iannone.

“Walsh is the real deal,” Peabody coach Scott Wlasuk surmised after dissecting a pair of North Andover game tapes. “What I was very impressed with is that you can tell that he is very fundamentally sound. He drops, turns, and fires the ball on the money.

“Against Revere they ran the ball a lot and he is a very good runner too. I am also very impressed with their running back (Iannone). He’s a quick back with a great center of balance.”

As was true with their earlier showdown with Masconomet, it will also be the first clash between the two teams in recent memory.

“They are great programs with great traditions and it’s a good experience for the program to play some of the other great programs that we have obviously heard a lot about over the years,” said the coach.

Wlasuk can take away plenty of positives after watching his undermanned team last week before falling, 41-34, and reported that practices have gone well this week. George Panopuolos (shoulder) is still out at middle linebacker, but the Tanners got a big lift from junior Brian Norwood who filled in admirably last week and will start again Friday.

It will be Senior Night Friday and Peabody will look to several of those veterans to help them control the ball. Specifically, the Tanners will look to prolific tailback Nat Gaye (172 yards, 3 TDs last week) and elusive quarterback Nick Hiou (89 yards 2 TDs last week ), to shorten the game and keep Walsh and company off the field. Fellow senior Nick Ingham (2 catches, 73 yards last week) continues to be Hiou’s favorite target.

North Andover at Peabody, Friday 7 p.m.

The Pick: NA, 35-28. Another strong performance for the Tanners against the class of the conference.

Falcons hoping to make Magicians’ Quigley disappear

There is simply no rest for the weary when it comes to the Danvers football team, which in the last three weeks has faced a murderer’s row of high school football teams in Triton, Beverly and Swampscott.

Coming off a tough last week things will not get any easier as the Falcons welcome the 5-2 Magicians of Marblehead to Dr. Deering Stadium Friday night. While all the headlines will be devoted to the big Swampscott-Beverly Tier 2 showdown this Saturday, Marblehead has quietly gone about its business racking up a perfect 2-0 mark in the league with games still to be played against both the Panthers and the Big Blue.

There’s little question to the secret of the Magicians’ success on offense. The Magicians are averaging 24.6 points a game thanks in large part to Will Quigley. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound back has answered his stellar junior campaign with an equally prolific senior campaign.

In last week’s , Quigley ran for 171 yards and four touchdowns and ranks sixth in all of Division 2A in scoring with 11 trips to the end zone and 68 points in all.

After opening up with a pair of wins, Marblehead was tripped up by the same that the Falcons topped in their opener, 18-8. Since then, the Magicians have won three of four, notching wins against , , and Salem while losing a .

Things unraveled in a hurry in the second half for Danvers last week in Swampscott, but Sean Rogers’ team can take plenty of positives out of the first quarter and half, which saw them hang tough with the formidable Big Blue. Danvers was down just 13-7 with 2:33 to go in the half when Paul Nicolo connected with Nick Valles on a pretty 26-yard TD strike. Sam Anderson accounted for the only other Danvers score on a five-yard run late in the fourth quarter.

Marblehead at Danvers, Friday 7 p.m.

The Pick: Marblehead, 28-22. Falcons’ upset bid comes up just short.

Game of the Year? It might just be for Swampscott and Beverly

It’s finally here.

After eight long weeks of doing their level best not to look ahead and to focus on the game at hand, Steve Dembowski and the Big Blue can finally talk about the single biggest obstacle in their path to a NEC/CAL Tier 2 title and a trip to the MIAA playoffs – the Beverly Panthers.

Swampscott (2-0, 7-1) invades Beverly’s Hurd Stadium Saturday at 2:30 p.m. for a marquee showdown with Beverly (2-0, 6-2) that was instantly circled on the calendars of all local football fans the minute the schedules were released.

A year ago a very good Swampscott team saw its designs on a title and the postseason go up in flames as visiting Beverly jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the break and held on for a 21-14 win. It was the fifth straight victory for a Panther squad that had lost its first five (all non-league) and wrapped up the NEC Small title. Beverly would go on to claim the Division 3 Super Bowl.

“You pretty much knew with what they had coming back that they would be in the race at this point and we hoped that we would be 2-0 in the league at this point too,” said Dembowski. “It’s a big game. The winner is not automatically in, but they are certainly in a lot better shape.”

Dembowski points to the three trips to the red zone, which netted his team zero points as a killer in last year’s pivotal loss to the Panthers and he's hopeful that this year’s senior-laden team will be able to capitalize on those opportunities.

“I think we are better than we were last year, probably on both sides of the ball,” said the coach.

Many feel the same can be said for the defending Super Bowl champs too, however. While Beverly graduated its entire – and massive – offensive and defensive lines, the Panthers returned its entire backfield, which has proven to be a quite a handful this year. Kenny Pierce (801 yards) heads the group, which boasts three rushers who have amassed over 400 yards and a fourth, fullback Jake Terriault (291 yards), who is also a legitimate threat in Beverly’s patented Wing-T attack. Brendan Flaherty, who ripped off the game-winning TD on a 70-yard jaunt last year, remains the most explosive of the bunch.

“Their backs are obviously very explosive and probably better that last year,” said Dembowski of Beverly, which has been tripped up only by undefeated Concord-Carlisle and Tier 1 power Masconomet. “They are more balanced as it’s not just Flaherty; it’s everyone this year for them. They can dominate you with the ground game because they can go left, right, and up the middle.”

Like Swampscott, Beverly also boasts a very stingy defensive unit that sometimes goes under the radar.

The key matchup Saturday?

“It would have to be our line against their line,” said Dembowski. “Last year they dominated our line on both sides of the ball. I think this year we have to make that at least a stalemate.”

Swampscott comes in off an , another Wing-T team, which saw Big Blue quarterback Michael Walsh throw for four touchdowns and run for two more.

Walsh, who continues to lead all of Division 2A in touchdown passes with 20, found his favorite target, A.J. Baker, three times. Baker is second in Division 2A in TD receptions with nine.

Swampscott at Beverly, Saturday 2:30 p.m.

The Pick: Swampscott, 28-26. Get to Beverly early because this is going to be a good one.