Central Catholic and Tewksbury have been the standard-bearers within the Merrimack Valley Conference Large and Small School divisions for years.
For one yr at the least, there will probably be change on the high.
Andover put itself within the driver’s seat within the MVC Large by following up the epic Central Catholic win with a wild 41-34 triumph at Methuen. Over within the MVC Small, Billerica defeated Tewksbury for the primary time in 10 years, 35-21.
“There’s a lot of good players in the MVC, everyone seems to have some real good ones,” mentioned Andover coach E.J. Perry. “And the coaching in this league is excellent, everyone is really good. You can see the time and effort they put in.”
Billerica coach Duane Sisgbury echoed lots of Perry’s identical sentiments.
“The MVC Small is really a tough league,” Sigsbury mentioned. “When you face a Tewksbury. North Andover and a Chelmsford, you better show up or you’re going to lose the game. Those teams are always prepared and play tough.”
Andover’s highway to the highest of the league wasn’t straightforward. They needed to navigate a pair of Sweet 16 groups in Central Catholic and Methuen in a span of seven days. Once they pulled off the upset of Central Catholic, Perry knew there was little or no time to rejoice.
“It was definitely a little difficult at first,” Perry mentioned. “We had a packed house for the Central game, we finally beat them and the crowd stormed the field afterwards. We gave them Saturday off like normal, then we went to pads on Sunday. Later in the week, the Thursday practice is usually a walk through but we went to pads because we knew it was going to be a physical game against Methuen.”
Andover’s veteran offensive line did its job and the duo of working again Lincoln Beal (18 carries for 138 yards and 4 touchdowns) and quarterback Scotty Brown (16 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns) took care of the remaining as Andover scored twice within the opening quarter and by no means relinquished the lead. For Perry, it was what he envisioned a couple of years in the past.
“We have 24 seniors on the team and most of them have started for us,” Perry mentioned. “Having a four-year starter at quarterback like Scotty is great for us. Once he committed to UMass-Lowell for baseball last year, he came back to us this fall relaxed and has played great for us.”
As was the case within the Andover-Methuen sport, Sigsbury knew his group would have their fingers full in the event that they weren’t keen to match Tewksbury’s physicality on the line of scrimmage.
“Tewksbury is physical and they never make mistakes, so we knew going into the game that we would have to match their toughness,” Sigsbury mentioned. “We really prepared hard for this game, we went back to film of games as far back as 2014 to make sure we were ready for anything.”
The finish outcomes spoke for themselves
Sweet 16
1. Catholic Memorial (4-0) – Blackjack for the Knights, 21 straight wins.
2. St. John’s Prep (4-1) – Eagles opened their Catholic Conference portion of the schedule with a bang.
3. King Philip (5-0) – It wasn’t fairly however a win is a win.
4. Xaverian (3-1) – The Hasselbeck-Monteiro duo had their approach with BC High Friday night time.
5. Andover (5-0) – Huge back-to-back energy wins in a seven-day stretch.
6. Milford (5-0) – After the massive win over North Attleboro, the Scarlet Hawks return to the gridiron with an enormous encounter towards King Philip.
7. Central Catholic (3-2) – Raiders had little bother with Lowell.
8. Reading (5-0) – Rockets survived a wild 38-37 win over Woburn to stay unbeaten.
9. Mansfield (4-1) – Always good to play out-of-state groups. Always nicer to emerge with a win.
10. Milton (5-0) – Victory No. 175 within the profession of head coach Steve Dembowski.
11. Duxbury (4-0) – Dragons clearly didn’t undergo from a bye week.
12. Peabody (5-0) – Good groups don’t undergo letdowns. The Tanners proved as such final Friday night time.
13. Everett (4-1) – Fourth straight win by which the Crimson Tide have scored at the least 37 factors.
14. Franklin (4-1) – Very stable effort towards a much-better Taunton squad.
15. Methuen (4-1) – No time to dwell on the loss with Central Catholic on the docket this week.
16. Billerica (5-0) – Indians picked up their greatest win in years by taking down Tewksbury.
Source: www.bostonherald.com