RallyNorth.net

Amesbury football grounds Triton

Friday, October, 12 By Bob Albright
Staff writer

AMESBURY | Deadlocked at the half against a fired up Triton squad at a windswept Landry Stadium, Amesbury coach Thom Connors elected to kick into the wind to start the third quarter fearing he may need to take to the air to put up some points in the final stanza.

But thanks to a pair of touchdowns from Jared Flannigan and Jesse Burrell with the wind in their face in the third quarter, it never did come to that for the Indians who marched to a solid 21-7 win over Triton.

"I just figured that if we stayed in that jam we wanted the wind in the fourth quarter," said Connors. "But to score 14 points into that wind was really key."

The Indians scored on their first possession of the second half after taking over at the Triton 41 thanks to a shanked punt. It took just four plays from there with Flannigan (12 rushes, 101 yards) scoring from 11 yards out on a keeper behind some nice blocks in front of him.

A 61-yard kick off return by Triton's Brendan O'Neil set the Vikes up in nice shape after that, but Kevin Johnston's deflection of Matt Emerzian's pass in the end zone on fourth down ended the threat.

A 26-yard run by Burrell (64 yards rushing) and a 23-yard jaunt by Flannigan set up the final score late in the third by Burrell from four yards out.

Forced to air it out against the wind in the final quarter, Emerzian had very little time to work and sacks from Steve Serwon and Zach Haggstrom pretty much sealed it for Amesbury (2-3, 0-1)

"I was happy with the way we finished it," said Connors. "That's a good way to go into next week (against H-W)."

Billy Tindle (22 yards) was Triton's top rusher and outside linebacker Zach Welch made his presence felt all evening long for Triton (1-5) which hosts Wilmington next.

With the wind gusting from the near end zone to the far one, Triton won the coin flip and chose to defer and have the wind at their back in the first quarter. It seemed like a solid plan right up until a deep kickoff was corralled by Amesbury’s Marion Wilder at the 15-yard line.

In an instant, the speedy sophomore found his blockers and headed for the Indian sidelines where he proceeded to scamper 85 yards to open the scoring just 15 seconds into the game. The score easily could have served as an early knockout punch for a struggling Triton team, but the Vikes did just what they had to | answer back in a hurry.

On just the second play of scrimmage from his own 37, Emerzian dropped back after a play-action fake and uncorked one of the prettiest passes you are going to see | especially given the gusty conditions | and connected with Will Joy in stride at the 25.

Joy took care of the rest dashing 25 yards to knot the score at 7-7 with 8:42 still left to play in the first quarter. Despite the early explosion, both defenses took over for the rest of the half with neither squad able to penetrate past the opposition's 46-yard line.

"I went in pretty unhappy at halftime and didn't have too many positive things to say to anyone," said Connors. "But they listened and played tough in the second half. They really came out and took control."