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Lowell rallies past Methuen

Friday, April, 09 By By Dave Dyer

LOWELL — All good things must come to an end and, because of two long touchdowns, it ended for the Methuen football team Friday night.

The Rangers hadn't lost to Lowell in at least nine years but that streak came to an end as Rob Pike's Red Raiders rallied for a hard-earned 15-7 victory.

"We knew it was going to be a rock fight and they just had more rocks at the end," said Methuen coach Tom Ryan. "It was a tough game, tough play by both lines, but they deserved it."

After a scoreless first half that was pretty much controlled by Methuen, the Rangers struck first when Anthony Romano scored on a 2-yard run, three plays after Jason Silverio took a swing pass and zoomed 50 yards down the sideline.

A nifty pass from JP Muniz to Tony Castro on a fake kick gave Methuen  the lead, 8-0.

But Lowell came back on its next possession and scored on a 48-yard run by Jack Frediani and then tied it on an Aaron Morris conversion run.

Neither offense could get much going after that until, with 2:30 left in the game, Lowell speedster Naujiye Neal got behind the Methuen secondary and hauled in a 67-yard bomb for the winning score.

Methuen drove 50 yards downfield in the closing minutes, with quarterback Joe Gangi completing four passes, but time ran out and the Rangers fell to 3-2.

The win was the third straight for Lowell (3-2) under Pike in his first season as head coach. He credited his defense for containing Romano (13 carries, 40 yards) and the Methuen running attack.

"He (Romano) is a good back and we knew if we didn't stop him, it'd be a long game for us," said Pike. "But our defensive line and linebackers did a nice job. We're improving every week."

Methuen, which hosts Dracut next Friday, played well defensively except for the two long TDs and had a big game on both sides of the ball from junior Jason Silverio, who had 10 receptions on offense for 110 yards.

Silverio was also the receiver of a nifty hook-and-ladder play in the first half when he caught a Gangi pass and then lateraled to Anesti Touma on a 25-yard play that took the Rangers deep into Lowell territory only to fall short.

Gangi completed 14 of 20 passes for 165 yards despite often being under serious pressure much of the game.