NORTH ANDOVER — Bottled up and held in check much of the night, Chance Brady still managed the final word.
The area's leading rusher erupted over the final 2 minutes, scoring two of his three touchdowns and powering Haverhill to a 38-22 victory over North Andover last night.
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Football, 11/09/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
NORTH ANDOVER — North Andover High senior Nick Oswald had a night to remember in the Knights' 56-28 thrashing of the Dracut High Middies.
He rushed for 402 yards. Please note, that is not a misprint.
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Football, 11/02/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
TEWKSBURY – One more possession, one more touch, that’s always Casey Walsh needed.
His counterpart, Johnny Aylward and his Tewksbury High mates wouldn’t let it happen.
The Redmen locked down on the MVC Division 2 title track, eating up the final 7:44 to deny Walsh and the Knights a miracle, 49-42, here at Doucet Field.
“We needed a stop on defense, maybe once, maybe twice, but we couldn’t get it done,” said Knights’ coach John Rafferty. “We couldn’t stop the run today. That’s what it came down to. It’s as simple as that.”
Walsh, the junior in his first season at the Knight helm, enjoyed an afternoon for the ages, hitting 15 of 21 passes for 253 yards and 4 TDs. Connor-and-Brandon’s-little-brother-no-more added 12 carries for 67 yards and the other two Knight touchdowns.
“Casey is a tough kid,” said Rafferty. “He did a great job trying to lead us out of that hole.”
The only problem was that Walsh couldn’t get back on the field after slicing a 33-14 halftime hole to 49-42 with a two-yard bull rush inside the 8-minute mark.
But the Redmen, and Aylward especially, cruelly and unusually tortured the Knights on the final possession.
What stung the Knights all afternoon — third-down defense – ultimately put the lights out on this one. Three times, North Andover had a chance to force the Redmen to give it up. All three times the chains got moved, and that was it. All 13 plays on the drive, including the final two kneel-downs, were rushes.
For the day, Tewksbury converted 10 of 12 third-downs and scoring a TD on one of the two fourth-downs they faced.
“They just physically beat us. We tried a number of things, they beat us up front,” said Rafferty. “Their offensive line got it done. It’s old-fashioned football, and it sure was effective.”
The loss leaves Tewksbury (3-0) alone at the top of MVC2, needing to slay only 0-2 Methuen and 0-2 Dracut to punch its
playoff ticket.
The junior Aylward, son of Redmen coach Brian Aylward, played Walsh’s equal all afternoon long.
“He wants the ball. If he didn’t he’d probably be the wrong guy to have in there,” said the elder Aylward after watching his son run run 17 times for 122 yards and hit 7 of 9 passes for 111 yards. He threw a TD pass and ran for two other scores. “He wants the ball in those situations. He feels safe with it. He scares the daylights out of me every time he carries it …”
But Aylward is darn lethal.
North Andover, 3-4 overall, joins Haverhill on the outside looking in at 2-1 in the league.
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Football, 10/27/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
NORTH ANDOVER — Growing up here in town, they heard, and even often read in these sports pages, all those not-so-subtle-but-still-sassy little cracks about playing in the Cape Ann League.
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Football, 10/19/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
Robert Shkliew caught a pair of touchdown passes from Casey Walsh and threw another to Tyler Whitley as the Scarlet Knights revived their season with a 28-21 come-from-behind victory at Chelmsford.
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Football, 10/12/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
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Football, 09/28/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
By the time the Lawrence High offense, finally puts points up on the board this season, deep into the third quarter of Game 2, North Andover had things well in hand, scrambling the Lancers, 33-12, before about 600 fans at Veterans Memorial Stadium last night.
Junior Casey Walsh worked the short-passing game with pin-point precision, connecting on 19 of 25 passes for 167 yards and three TDs as the Knights made their first official football act as a member MVC Division 2 a winning one. The gritty Walsh added a game-high 79 yards rushing on just six carries.
"He's a different guy out there," said Walsh's top receiver on the night, Robert "Bubba" Shkliew. "He's very disciplined out there, and he's an excellent leader. You just love to be in his huddle."
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Football, 09/14/12 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
