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LAWRENCE — Ryan Burns knows full well nothing is guaranteed in football. He watched when his injured older brother, Kyle, had to sit out his senior year at Central Catholic.

So the brawny Irishman from Danville felt blessed. The Raiders took it to Lawrence, 44-20, before about 500 fans on a beautiful Thanksgiving morning. He had family at Veterans Stadium and he was getting hugs left and right from pretty classmates. And in his final football game of his career, Burns was named the Raiders' game MVP (Michael Sullivan Award).

MALDEN - The last two weeks for Lawrence football have been centered around streaks - breaking them while starting new ones.

But after winning in back-to-back weeks to snap a 23-game losing streak, the Lancers couldn't string together their third straight victory Thursday night.

MEDFORD — Lawrence football has seemed snakebitten over the past few years, and Friday night it looked like the Lancers might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again.

In the second half, the Lancers missed a field goal, fumbled the ball twice in the red zone and had a potential touchdown pass caught out of bounds. Coach Mike Yameen said afterwards he thought it just wasn't going to be his team's day once again.

LAWRENCE — Haverhill captain Kyle Bellemore got a nice surprise and, partly because of it, a nice reward Friday night.

METHUEN — Senior running back Saul Cespedes could tell that something wasn’t right with the Methuen football team in the first half.
“I was trying to get the team up but we just couldn’t get anything going,” said Cespedes. “It was a rough start. I think we were getting ahead of ourselves.”
But, trailing 14-0 to winless but fired-up Lawrence at halftime, the Rangers stormed back in the second half to take a 27-14 victory and improve to 4-2.
And Cespedes, who has been overshadowed a bit this year by multi-talented quarterback Jordan Perdomo, was at the center of the comeback. He rushed for 104 yards on 10 carries after halftime and sealed the comeback in the fourth quarter with a 19-yard TD run.
“He (Cespedes) is amazing,” said Perdomo, who rushed for two TDs and kicked three extra points in the second half. “He and Peter (Kwakye) are different backs but they both give us so much.”
After Perdomo scored on short runs to cap off long drives in the third quarter, Kwakye scored what proved to be the winning TD on a 61-yard dash through the line. Earlier, he set up Perdomo’s second TD with a 44-yard scamper. Cespedes finished the scoring.
Cespedes, who missed all of last year with a broken clavicle, now has rushed for 464 yards and eight touchdowns on the year.
“Saul has done a great job for us and gives us a lot of options,” said Methuen coach Tom Ryan. “He runs hard and is like our doubles hitter. Kwakye is our home run hitter and Jordan (Perdomo) is like someone who spreads it all around.”
Explaining the slow start to the game but solid second half by the Rangers (4-2), Ryan said:
“We just didn’t execute in the first half. Nobody did including the coaches. We made some adjustments at halftime and played a lot better.”
Indeed, held to 15 yards rushing in the first half, the Rangers rushed for a whopping 308 yards on the ground after halftime.
Just as impressive in the second half was the Rangers’ defense, holding the Lancers to 65 yards of total offense. Among those making big stops was senior defensive back A.J. Borrelli, who also had a late interception to seal the deal.
In the first half, Lawrence looked like anything but a winless team. Juniors Jonathan Velilla and Jiovanny Murray were monsters up front defensively and the backers were immense coming up to make tackles.
Offensively, quarterback Jacob Tamayo was sharp in the first half for the Lancers, completing 7 of 14 passes for two touchdowns, one a 43-yarder to Ronyell Pena and the other 13 yards to Miguel Camacho. The latter was 10 seconds before halftime and was set up by a Pena interception.
“That was tale of two halves,” said Lawrence coach Mike Yameen. “We did some good things but we need to learn how to finish.”
Playing well consistently for the Lancers (0-6) was kicker Musset Mezidor. He averaged 40 yards on six punts, one of which went 60 yards, and was perfect on both of his extra point tries.
Lawrence will host Haverhill next Friday in a battle of winless teams while Methuen plays host to Lowell.

LAWRENCE — The Lawrence football team's winless streak continued Friday as the Lancers were shut out by Tewksbury 21-0.

Tewksbury took an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 29-yard pass by Jay Connolly to Masyn Lorick. Then the Redmen made it 13-0 going into halftime on a 6-yard rushing TD by Brandon Winn.

NORTH ANDOVER — Chik Ogwuru was just a bit disappointed as he walked off the field Friday night.

The senior linebacker really wanted to reach the zone for his first career varsity touchdown.

LAWRENCE — This post-E.J. Perry IV world is going to take some time to adjust to at Andover High. At least on offense.

But defensively, Andover High has already moved on and is off to the races, literally, as the Golden Warriors pounded Lawrence High, 34-2, at Veterans Memorial Stadium last night.

DRACUT — Lawrence trailed by one touchdown with just over three minutes to play, but Dracut executed a third-and-long and added the game-clinching score in the final moments to down the Lancers 27-14 on Friday night.