McHugh grounds up Tewksbury

DIV. 3 FOOTBALL

WEYMOUTH — North Attleboro coach Don Johnson has no problem picking who on his team he likes in the 50yard dash.

“Brendan (McHugh) is our speed guy,” said Johnson. “We don’t have a lot of legitimate speed when he’s off the field, but he’s the one guy who can break it every time he touches the football.”

Tewksbury found that out the hard way yesterday as McHugh scored three times, including a 56-yard jaunt up the sideline for the pivotal score, as North Attleboro punched its ticket for Gillette Stadium with a 29-21 victory in the Division 3 state semifinals.

“We had been getting great blocking the whole game and it just showed on that play,” said the fleet-footed junior, who also notched the South champs’ first two scores on a 1-yard run and a 51-yard hookup with senior quarterback Chad Peterson.

North Attleboro (10-1) rushed for 230 yards, but still found itself trailing 15-14 to open the second half. Consecutive sacks by the Redmen (9-2) had the Rocketeers staring at third-and-long, but Peterson connected with the ever-present McHugh (71 yards rushing, 77 yards receiving) for 26 yards. The play salvaged what proved to be a 12-play drive that ate up nearly eight minutes and culminated with Nate Pearce’s (78 yards) 6-yard TD plunge. Peterson found Nolan Buckley for the conversion, a 22-15 lead and all the momentum.

“That may have been the key play in the game,” said Johnson. “The last two weeks we’ve been able to come out and establish ourselves in the first drive of the second half and that swings the momentum in these close games.”

Down 29-15 with nine minutes to play, a very game Tewksbury quickly moved the ball to the North Attleboro 6 thanks to a 48yard hookup between Jay Connolly (195 yards) to Masyn Lorick (112 yards receiving), but the Rocketeers’ Nick Raneri forced a fumble on the next play — North Attleboro’s third takeaway of the game.

Brandon Winn’s (84 yards rushing) 15-yard TD catch from Connolly with 35 seconds left brought the Redmen within eight, but both the ensuing rush and onside kick failed. It was Connolly’s third touchdown pass of the game, to go with a pair of first-half connections with senior Blake Hiltz.