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Greater Lawrence holds on this time

Saturday, October, 29 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER — For the second straight week, Greater Lawrence took a two-touchdown lead late into the fourth quarter. This time, the Reggies held on.

Overcoming three quarters of stagnant offense, Greater Lawrence exploded in the fourth quarter and knocked off Commonwealth Large front-runner Northeast for a 14-6 Homecoming victory.

The Reggies (6-2 overall, 2-1 league) had a 14-0 advantage until Northeast (6-2, 2-1) scored with 5:23 left. But that would be as close as the Golden Knights would get, unlike a week earlier when Shawsheen scored twice in the final 30 seconds for a 13-12 victory. It was a loss the Reggies heard about all week.

“It wasn’t the physical, but the mental part that was tough on them,” Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis said. “It speaks a lot of their character to come back and play a game like this after Shawsheen. It was huge, and I’m proud of them.”

Most of the game yesterday highlighted strong defenses as the teams combined to gain a total of only 103 yards on 41 first-half plays. The Reggies managed only 57 yards through three quarters, and it was a defensive stand that ignited Greater Lawrence.

Looking to break a scoreless game, Northeast had a first-and-goal at the Reggie 6. But Greater Lawrence stuffed third- and fourth-down running plays from inside the 1 to stifle the Knights with 10:52 left.

“That was huge,” Sarkis said. “(The second run) was from like the 1-inch line. These guys came up and stopped that. It was just huge.”

Taking over from inside their own 1, the Reggies went to Christian Rivera for gains of 4 and 17 yards. Four plays after taking possession, Yamarco Guzman found Jonathan Montero behind the defense at the 45 and the junior receiver went the final 65 untouched.

“After the first half, we realized we had to step it up,” Guzman said. “We started out slow, but we came back. It was just (Montero) on a fly on that play. We saw they kept on biting on the power side, so we came back side on them.”

The Reggies then stopped Northeast’s ensuing possession with a fourth-down sack by Jake Barchard at the Knight 40, and three plays later Rivera bolted 30 yards for another score. Guzman’s conversion run provided a 14-0 lead.

“(Northeast) was just playing hard,” said Rivera, who finished with 102 yards on 21 carries. “We weren’t that aggressive in the first half. In the second half, we finally started to play. We came alive.”

With three games remaining in the season, the victory put Greater Lawrence back into the hunt for a league title.