You have to love the message from Haverhill High coach Rob Pike after the loss to Tewksbury on Friday night.
The Hillies were clearly hurting, just a little bit. I mean, at the coin toss, two captains were in street clothes with only James Farrell and Brandon Piraino in uniform at midfield.
Pike will have none of it.
“We had everybody. We just have to play better,” said Pike.
“We have some good players. We have some good kids who want to do things. We’re just not quite there in terms of the execution. Those breakdowns are hurting us.
“We’ve got some skill. We have some tough kids. It’s a good group.”
The 1-1 Hillies feel like they can factor in the mix of the MVC large trio with Central Catholic and Andover.
They have the horse in QB James Farrell, who is off to a filthy start with four TD passes and a pair of TD runs in two games.
He’s driven the career passing yardage total to 4,246 for his career. But even with a handful or two of Hillies out of uniform there are play-makers around him.
Pike lauded the grit and the effort until the end.
“(Sophomore) Stavy Baptiste is a great linebacker. He did a really good job. (Jadriel) Sanchez is our left tackle. He was opening some holes, and he never gets beat on pass (protection),” said Pike. “You see James. He’s a stud. Piraino (8 catches, 77 yards, 1 TD) is a great receiver. You see those guys. (Sophomore Jathian) DeJesus (5 catches, 74 yards, 1 TD) made some plays, too.”
Stoneham High, now 2-2, comes to Haverhill Stadium on Friday night.
Redmen impress
A couple notes leftover from the tidy Tewksbury win over Haverhill at the Cadillac of area high school stadia, Doucette Field.
Tewksbury’s impressive night on offense cannot be understated. The prototypical Redmen efficiency in the Aylward system – in this case Brian Aylward – was on point, in both the run and pass game.
And, of course, there was the one magical play, which almost should have been a Bob Aylward/Tewksbury trademark, the hook-and-lateral for a TD to end the first half.
Crisp is one word to describe the 40-yard connection from Vinnie Ciancio to Johnny Sullivan to Ben Christopher.
The other word would be perfection, and it’s something that these eyes have been watching the Aylwards do to MVC opposition since the early 1980s.
They have literally been running it successfully for five decades.
Sheer brilliance.
We talked to a handful of folks in Redmen Country Friday night about Christopher, the talented flanker/slot receiver.
Ben’s dad, Ben, was an absolute stud in the late 1990s.
One longtime Tewksbury backer noted, “His dad was better,” on Friday night.
Having covered both generations, I’m not too sure, especially after feeling the breeze as the younger Christopher accelerated past me like the Road-Runner for a 71-yard TD catch-and-run on Friday night.
Sizing up the MVC middle
The three-tiered Merrimack Valley Conference makes for some interesting matchups coming up over the next month.
If I had to guess, Methuen at Tewksbury will be the giant matchup of the year on October 25 at “The Douce.” But there’s a ton of good football to be played to get there as no inter-division games (Billerica, Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Methuen, North Andover) have been played yet.
Man-child Thomas Brown and Chelmsford hit Ranger Road this Friday night to start things off.
Odds and Ends
Former Central Catholic QB Blake Hebert of Andover had his second straight big week, leading Brunswick School to a 2-0 start. In this week’s win over the Salisbury school, the Clemson recruit threw for 222 yards and two TDs. He also ran for two more scores. …
The numbers continue to pile up for Greater Lawrence Tech sensation Gustavo Varela. Is it totally out of the question to ponder that with his 231 rushing yards in Friday night’s loss at Salem, Mass., that Varela could eclipse the 1,000-yard mark rushing in Week 4? He now has 673 headed Lynn English on Friday night. By the way, with four more TDs, Varela now has a dozen in three games.
Both he and Elizardo Melenciano ran back kicks for scores on Friday. and did you know that Salem and GLT combined for a 51-point second quarter? Let’s hope there were plenty of calculators on hand.