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North Andover fizzles after fast start

Tuesday, November, 30 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

LOWELL — North Andover High had a dream start against the Concord-Carlisle Patriots.

A pounding blindside sack by Matt Gallagher produced a fumble recovered by teammate Mike Weisman at the Patriot 46-yard line. Eight fast-paced, no-huddle plays later, standout quarterback Brandon Walsh ran six yards over left tackle into the end zone for a quick Scarlet Knight lead.

Then linebacker Stephen O'Grady jarred the ball away from C-C sophomore Tim Badgley and Jon Swanton fell on it at the Patriot 39. Once again, eight plays later, Walsh hit tight end Weisman in the end zone with a 4-yard toss, but this time North Andover was flagged for holding, wiping away a possible 14-0 first-quarter lead.

But the only penalty the Knights suffered all game seemingly emboldened Concord-Carlisle not only for the series, yielding a 29-yard John Hufziger field goal, but for the rest of the night. The Knights were shackled offensively and battered defensively — C-C scored 35 answered points — suffering a 35-16 Division 2A semifinal setback at Cawley Stadium.

The Patriots will play Duxbury — a 19-7 victor last night over Dennis-Yarmouth — for the division title Saturday at Gillette Stadium.

After the turnovers, C-C scored on every possession except its last that ended the game. Especially in a game-changing 20-point second quarter, a brutal Winged-T offense clicked efficiently for 319 rushing yards.

Junior battering ram George Craan (27 carries for 163 yards and three touchdowns) was the textbook workhorse and sophomore Badgley (six carries for 120 yards) was an effective counter-puncher when defenders committed on ball fakes to Craan.

"The Winged-T helped us develop an identity as a pretty tough football team," Patriot head coach Mike Robichaud said. "All the fundamentals that go into it, the concentration on blocking and having to defend those blocks in our practices. There's a lot of contact in our practices and it helped infuse a toughness factor across the board."

That toughness helped C-C emotionally survive the miscues and get to work shutting down Walsh, who Robichaud correctly identified as the main cog of North Andover's attack.

"We felt that if we kept him contained with our ends — Henry Bumpus had been phenomenal all year for us — and play more disciplined football, that would help."

Walsh was hounded into his first two interceptions of the season, one by Evan Boynton in the Patriot end zone that crushed a 16-play, 51/2-minute march to open the second half and another by Jackson Finigan at the Patriots' 10 on the next Knight possession. He also suffered four sacks, two by Bumpus and 11/2 from linebacker Max Barrett.

"As we saw more of their plays, we knew a lot more of their tendencies," said Barrett, who also had a second-quarter TD reception. "Our defensive coordinator Tom Dalicandro literally watched every single play (of theirs) and saw every single tendancy. We were ready for everything."

"(Concord-Carlisle) did the best that anybody did against us all year," North Andover head coach John Rafferty said. "They came at us pretty good and we didn't do a good job on pass protection. They got stronger and stronger and they took control of the game."

Additional stories:

• Concord-Carlisle defense solves Walsh, Knights
• Concord-Carlisle defense solves Walsh, Knights