Muse fills up LA’s bowl
Freshman rushes for 374 yards, six scores
FOOTBALL ROUNDUP
From the season’s opening kickoff, Lawrence Academy had a special team. A NEPSAC Bowl victory only added to it.
The Spartans finished the season yesterday with a convincing 56-7 win against Phillips Academy in the NEPSAC Kevin Fleming Bowl in Groton. The victory marked the third time in four seasons Lawrence Academy (9-0) finished as a bowl champion.
“It’s been great,” Spartans coach Paul Zukauskas said of the program’s recent success.
“We’ve been to three (bowls) in the past four years. It always starts with the players and we’ve had some great players.”
Freshman Tony Muse was unequivocally the best player on the field yesterday. He rushed for six touchdowns and a teamrecord 374 yards on 18 carries. Five of Muse’s scores and 273 of his yards were produced in the first half.
“The way (Muse) plays football is way beyond his years,” Zukauskas said. “Tony is a really tough kid and he has a bright future because he plays football the right way.”
Muse scored on runs of 18, 17 and 35 yards as the Spartans built a 21-0 in the first quarter. His backbreaking 84-yard run with 6:43 left in the first half made it a 49-0 game. He also scored from 7 yards out in the second quarter.
“With (my) O-line, there would be like three holes I could run through,” Muse said. “I just have to pick. I just have to look at the linebackers and see where I want to go.”
Muse tallied his sixth and final score with a 50yard rush up the sideline on the second play from scrimmage to begin the third quarter with Lawrence Adademy’s final points.
Joshua Arruda scored the other rushing touchdown for the Spartans from 10 yards in the second quarter.
The defense also came up big for Lawrence Academy by forcing punts on eight of the first nine possessions for Phillips Andover (6-3). The lone non- punt came on a 14-yard pick-6 by senior Joseph Luchetti in the first quarter.
The lone score for Phillips Andover came on an 8-yard carry for senior Andrew Antonucci in the fourth quarter. The Spartans held the visitors to 170 yards overall, 58 in the first half.
In the NEPSCAC Hugh Caldera Bowl, Rayshaw Boswell ran for three scores and threw for a fourth as Berkshire (90) defeated Buckingham, Browne & Nichols, 35-28. Ryan Eamer tossed a pair of touchdown passes for the Knights (7-2).
In a Small School Vocational Bowl semifinal, Steffan Gravely finished with 201 yards and three touchdowns, while Emerson Ramirez recorded 14 tackles to lift Lynn Tech (10-1)
by Franklin Tech, 41-6.