Waltham walked off the sector after Thursday’s win over Newton South as proud homeowners of a 3-0 document.
For applications like Catholic Memorial, a 3-0 begin is one thing they count on. For Waltham, you need to go fairly far again to search out the final time the Hawks opened the season with three straight wins.
The 1999 squad beneath Dan Keohane began the season with a 6-0 mark earlier than falling to Everett, who would finally go on to a win the Super Bowl. A late-season tie to Peabody was the one different blemish on an outstanding 8-1-1 season.
Recent years haven’t been type to Waltham. The Hawks haven’t had a successful season since 2016 and had been coming off a 2-9 season beneath new coach Sean Brackett. The encouraging information was that the workforce was loaded with underclassmen and confirmed progress down the stretch,
“As someone who had been used to winning, there was some frustration early on,” Brackett admitted. “But I did are available in realizing we couldn’t flip issues round over evening. We knew to ensure that us to show issues round, the children had been going to should step up and work to develop into greater, quicker and stronger and so they had been prepared to do this.
“Even though we weren’t winning much last year, you could see some sparks. For us, it was a matter of consistently doing it all the time. The great teams do it all the time, the good teams do it most of the time and the bad teams don’t do it all.”
Much has been made concerning the non-playoff or comfort video games in recent times. While some have referred to them as meaningless exhibitions, others have used these video games as a springboard to the following season.
“We looked at those two games as the beginning of the next year when we expect to be in the hunt for playoff berths,” Brackett mentioned. “It was like college teams who make a bowl, they get those extra three or four weeks of practices. We had some good results (Waltham went 1-1 in those two games) and we were looking forward to this season.”
There was loads of motive for optimism in Waltham because the workforce returned Dual County League Small All-Star quarterback Jack Renaud, huge receivers Ty Connolly and Josh Registre, linemen Isaiah Louissaint in addition to a top quality kicker in Edwin Ramirez.
As everybody is aware of, nothing sells a child on a program greater than success. Waltham tasted the early fruits of victory within the season opener in opposition to Newton North, a contest the place they rallied behind a pair of landing passes from Renaud to win, 23-20.
“We talked about that after the game. Last year, that’s a game where we would have found a way to lose,” Brackett mentioned. “To be able to come back and find a way to win that game gave our kids a lot of confidence. There’s always going to be some adversity in a game, but you have to able to fight through it and we did.”
The protection stepped up and performed excellent in a 17-6 nonleague win over Winchester to make their win whole of a season in the past. That set the stage for final Thursday’s 37-7 win over Newton South at close by Bentley University. Renaud threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns, whereas Connolly amassed 134 all-purpose yards and three scores.
“I’m just very happy for the kids,” mentioned Brackett, who praised his offensive coordinator Joey Carroll and defensive coordinator Tim Huffam. “It’s nice to see them getting results from all the work they’ve put in.”
PLAYING FOR A GOOD CAUSE
The Greater Lawrence soccer is doing its half for charity, working to boost cash for St. Jude Hospital. All of the gamers, coaches and members of the athletic division are selling St Jude and the unimaginable issues the hospital does for youngsters battling most cancers and life threatening ailments. Each member of this system can have a fundraising web page (Reggies4StJude) in hope that we are able to increase as a lot cash as potential.
The workforce within the midst of a two-week marketing campaign, ending with the sport in opposition to Shawsheen this Friday. During the sport, they’ll share all the good issues St Jude does and share among the heartfelt tales coming from the hospital. Here is a hyperlink to the fundrasing web page: https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?team_id=284065&fr_id=133399&pg=team©_link_share©_link_share
SWEET 16
1. Catholic Memorial (2-0) – Out-of-state, in-state, it actually doesn’t matter to the Knights nowadays.
2. Central Catholic (2-1) – Third straight win over St. John’s (Shrewsbury) in a 12-month time span.
3. St. John’s Prep (2-1) – Bounced again with a vengeance in opposition to an improved Haverhill squad.
4. King Philip (3-0) – Not certain any coach will get extra out of their gamers than Brian Lee.
5. Milford (3-0) – Scarlet Hawks having fun with their Bay State Conference expertise.
6. Xaverian (2-1) – Back to the drafting board after their preliminary loss to King Philip.
7. Reading (3-0) – Rockets proceed to roll, incomes their third straight double-digit victory.
8. Andover (3-0) – After three straightforward wins, time to leap into the center of the schedule with Central Catholic and Methuen again to again.
9. North Attleboro (2-0) – Back to the grind after a well-deserved bye.
10. Mansfield (2-1) – Defense was an excessive amount of for Doherty Friday evening.
11. Milton (3-0) – Say this for Steve Dembowski, he is aware of how you can develop quarterbacks.
12. Duxbury (3-0) – To suppose there was a time that baseball was the first sport for standout quarterback Matt Festa.
13. Marblehead (3-0) – Big Northeastern Conference showdown with Peabody this week.
14. Methuen (3-0) – There’s multiple Eason that the Merrimack Valley Conference has to fret about.
15. Everett (2-1) – Crimson Tide having fun with some Greater Boston League cooking.
16. Walpole (3-0) – Timberwolves had a battle with Wellesley earlier than rallying to win.
Source: www.bostonherald.com