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Andover's Belluche returns to spark Phillips victory

In his first game back from a wrist injury that had limited him to just punting, Andover's Jack Belluche returned an interception for a touchdown and caught a touchdown from Georgetown's Travis Lane to lead Phillips to its first victory of the season, 20-6 over Cushing Academy.  

"We thought we matched up well against Cushing and the kids came out and played a much better game," said Big Blue coach Leon Modeste. "Three years ago we went winless and that was brutal, so to break through with a victory is definitely a relief.

After missing two games then forced to just punt last week due to the cast on his hand, Belluche — the brother of former Eagle-Tribune track All-Star Emily and hockey Eagle-Tribune hockey All-Star David Belluche — returned in fine fashion last night.

The Phillips junior intercepted two passes, one he returned for a 23-yard touchdown to give the Blue Blue their first lead of the day.

Belluche added his second touchdown of the second quarter when he hauled in a pass from Lane, a freshman pressed into duty, for a 27-yard score.

"Jack did an excellent job," said Modeste. "He was excited to be back and really stepped up."

Belluche's two picks sparked a dominant day for the Big Blue defense.

Bobby Needham, a linebacker from North Reading, starred with eight tackles and a sack while postgrad linebacker Dane Wagner had a team-best 14 tackles and a sack of his own and Anthony Maxwell added nine tackles. Cam Fryer also had nine tackles from his nose guard position.

"Our whole defense was great but Needham and Wagner were particularly excellent," said Modeste. Hopefully getting Belluche back is the start of us getting healthy and back to where we should be. The kids that are out there are iron men, and hopefully some other starters will be back soon and really put things together."