Redemption tastes Super
The North Andover coaches and players said all the right things about taking things one week at a time, but there was always something in the back of their minds — Lincoln-Sudbury.
Ever since the Scarlet Knights lost to the Warriors in the Div. 2 North final a year ago, the main focus was to take of business in order to get another crack at Lincoln-Sudbury.
Redemption time was Friday night where North Andover unleashed a year’s worth of frustration by beating Lincoln-Sudbury in every facet of the game, 42-0. The reward is a trip to Gillette Stadium to face two-time defending champion King Philip.
“We were really happy that Lincoln-Sudbury came back to beat Reading last week because everyone wanted to play them again,” North Andover coach John Dubzinski said. “Our guys just went out and played a great game. We talk every week about a 44-minute contract, make sure we play every minute and we did that.”
The tone was set from the start. Gabe DeSouza picked off a pass and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown. The defense forced a third-and-out, then Darren Watson sprinted 67 yards to set up Jake McElroy’s touchdown to extend the lead to 14-0.
By halftime, the Scarlet Knights tacked on a pair of touchdowns to take a commanding 28-0 lead into the locker room. Dubzinski was quick to remind his team about perils of celebrating too early.
“We told them that Acton-Boxboro had a 28-0 lead on them a few weeks ago and Lincoln-Sudbury came back and took a lead,” Dubzinski said. “But we have a really good group of guys who have been here for a few years and they understood what needed to be done.”
As a result, they’ll be playing meaningful football into early December.
Going bowling
Christmas came early for the ISL as five member schools received NEPSAC Bowl bids. It came as no surprise that ISL-7 trichampions Belmont Hill, BB&N and St. Sebastian’s received bids as they all finished at 7-1 with the losses coming to one another.
Noble & Greenough earned one of the two bids from the ISL-9 with Thayer Academy getting the other one. Tigers’ coach Jeff Toussaint was cautiously optimistic, but knew it could go either way.
“When I went to bed, I thought it was 4060 or 50-50 that we would go,” Toussaint said. “I thought Nobles winning could hurt our chances because they had the better record. I’m just very happy for the seniors because it’s been a while since we’ve gone.”
Pingree and Dexter Southfield, which played a double overtime classic last week (won by Pingree, 13-7), both earned NEPSAC bowl bids.
The State Vocational Bowl field was announced as well. Assabet Valley, Northeast, Greater Lowell and Greater Lawrence are in the Large School field, while Upper Cape and Nashoba Tech received Small School bids.