TEWKSBURY – After dropping their season-opening recreation, the Chelmsford Lions have roared previous each opponent, dominating on each side of the ball. For probably the most half on a beautiful Saturday afternoon that was the case in opposition to Tewksbury, which additionally entered the Merrimack Valley Conference recreation with a 4-1 report.
Led by quarterback Kyle Wilder, who accomplished 15-of-23 passes for 255 yards, together with 4 landing passes, the Lions improved to 5-1 with a 39-21 victory over the Redmen earlier than a big crowd at Doucette Field.
The offensive juggernaut began instantly for the Lions. After forcing the Redmen to punt on their first possession, on the primary play from scrimmage, Wilder related over the center to Grant Engelhardt for a 69-yard move.
“We always talk about a fast start and it’s one of the things that we address every day in practice is starting fast and finishing,” stated Lions’ head coach George Peterson. “This is certainly the fastest start that we’ve gotten off to with this initial play. We saw the way that they were lining to trips on film and we took advantage of it. It was something that we had practiced all week and we were able to hit it, so it was a big play from our quarterback and receiver.”
The Lions continued to dominate the primary quarter with two extra touchdowns. The first got here on a 49-yard run by Malakai Everett (12 carries, 75 yards) adopted with a 12-yard TD reception by John McCarthy and the Lions had a 19-0 lead.
“We have been explosive on the offensive side of the ball. I think we took advantage of some opportunities early on in the game. It was frustrating that we weren’t able to slam the door in the second half and take care of business the way that we had hoped to. We had turnovers, costly penalties and stupid stuff that led to them being able to fight and claw their way back into the game,” stated Peterson. “We talked about it all week that Tewksbury is probably the toughest team you’re going to face as far as their mental toughness. They are never going to give in or let down. They are going to give a full four quarters and that was one hundred percent true today. Kudos to them and their kids for coming back the way that they did and I think we have to get better at taking care of the football and get better at not committing costly penalties.”
Everett added his second landing on a 1-yard run earlier than Tewksbury’s Alex Arbogast took a sweep to the correct 57 yards and the Lions led 26-7 at halftime.
Ryan Blagg (4 catches, 91 yards) caught a 29-yard move from Wilder with 6:34 left within the third and that was adopted by two touchdowns by the Redmen, a 44-yard move from Vincent Ciancio to Sean Hirtle after which Ciancio related with Michael Sullivan from 17 yards out to chop the deficit to 32-21. That was as shut because the Redmen received, as Blagg closed it out along with his second rating on a 28-yard move from Wilder, who was glorious from begin to end.
“(Wilder) had a great day for us. He’s a kid who the past few weeks we haven’t had to rely on to throw the ball as much as he did today. They were cramming the box with seven and eight guys at times, so we have to make it work from our quarterback and receiver position. We have some great receivers and Kyle has done a great job of preparing himself and was able to make some great throws,” stated Peterson.
Besides Wilder’s 255 yards, the Lions additionally rushed for 166 yards as a part of their 421 yards of offense. For Tewksbury, Cianco completed finishing 12-of-27 for 166 yards, and on the bottom Arbogast had 15 carries for 115 yards.
“That’s a good team. We missed on a few things even in the first half. We could have kept that tighter going into (the halftime break),” stated Redmen coach Brian Aylward. “We had a couple of our guys lose their composure a little bit and you just have to fight through that stuff. It’s a learning process. We’re playing against a lot of veteran teams and we have guys who are not really veterans. They have a tough task of facing teams that have a lot of varsity experience under their belt, while some of them have no varsity experience under their belt, but that’s the nature of the beast. We are transitioning to a lot of new guys so we need to play pretty much perfect ball to beat the real good teams.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com