RallyNorth.net

Malden downs turnover-prone Hillies

Saturday, September, 11 By Jeff Hamrick
Correspondent

MALDEN — When you’re on a losing streak like Haverhill, you can’t make things easier for your opponent.

But that’s what the Hillies did yesterday afternoon in the season opener.

Taking advantage of four interceptions and a fumble, Malden ran up a 35-13 victory at MacDonald Stadium, sending the Hillies to their 22nd straight loss since winning their first game of the 2008 season. That ironically was over Malden.

But this is a different Malden team. The Boston Globe even wrote they might be able to overtake vaunted Everett this fall.

“All (Malden’s) plays were picking off the ball or recovering fumbles and returning it to our 30 it seemed,” said first-year Haverhill coach Tim O’Connor. “We were playing on our side of the field all day, and we can’t play like that.”

Malden began three of its first four possessions in Haverhill territory and began each of its six first-half possessions no worse than its own 42. With that kind of field position it was easy for the Golden Tornadoes to jump to a 21-0 lead.

Frankie Dunn scored each of Malden’s first four touchdowns on three runs and a touchdown reception on a pass from Kevin Valley, who completed seven of his first 10 attempts for 195 yards.

“Obviously there were going to be some problems,” Haverhill senior Jeremy Giampiola said. “We had some kinks to work out, but we just wanted to produce and do what we could do. It was very frustrating. (Malden) didn’t have many drives. The big plays just kind of killed us and destroyed our momentum.”

Haverhill did get on the board late in the second quarter when Jeremy Martinez recovered a fumble 11 seconds before intermission.

Junior Connor Tufts was 5 of 16 for 27 yards and had some tough luck with three tipped passes. Sophomore Tom Morgan came in on Haverhill’s final possession of the third quarter.

O’Connor says Tufts is still the starter.

“He’ll get better,” O’Connor said. “He just has to learn to read (defenses) a little bit more. He’ll progress through the year. We still have faith in him.”

After watching Malden score two more touchdowns in the third quarter, including one on a 37-yard interception
return by Kenny Mettelus, Haverhill finished the scoring with a 4-yard run by Giampiola with 5:09 remaining.

The Hillies had 61 plays from scrimmage — 23 more than Malden — but finished with 43 fewer total yards.

“Coming in I wanted to see the kids not give up,”  said O’Connor, who was an assistant at Malden for three years and applied for the head job before last season. “And they didn’t give up. They fought until the end and so I’m proud of them for that. Obviously I did not expect (five) turnovers ... You can’t win football games with turnovers.”