Jackson leads Classical to rout over Peabody

LYNN ? No letdown, no rust, no looking ahead. Nothing but another solid performance from the Lynn Classical football team.Coming off a bye and with Gloucester coming to town next week, the Rams (5-1) took care of what was in directly in front of them by whipping Peabody, 40-0, Friday night, at Manning Field.Quivari Jackson (168 yards from scrimmage) scored three touchdowns, two on passes from Alex Watler and another on a 3-yard run. Cam Smith, Chad Quintana and Gary Sisson added one touchdown apiece.As dominant as Classical was on offense, its defense was even better. The Rams’ first unit held the Tanners (1-5) to one first down. For the game, Peabody picked up just 48 total yards.”I was a little concerned about us being rusty, but the kids really wanted to come out and play a football game,” Classical coach Matt Durgin said.The positives were few for Peabody, which really couldn’t muster much of anything offensively or stop Classical on defense.”This is kind of a low point,” Peabody coach Dick Woodbury said. “We just can’t seem to get 11 people to do things together. That’s the frustrating part. I know we’re capable of so much more.”Late in the first quarter, Classical’s Bryndyn Primus recovered a fumble at Peabody’s 38-yard line and four plays later Smith rolled around right end to make the score 6-0.Early in the second quarter, the Rams got good field position when Peabody punter Justin Provencher couldn’t handle a low snap from center and was tackled at the Tanners’ 33. Jackson handled the ball on three of the next four plays, the last of which was a 3-yard scoring run.Classical made it 18-0 at halftime when Watler (a typically efficient 4-for-4 night with 2 TDs) hit Jackson on a post pattern for a 25-yard scoring strike.By that point, the Classical student section – which braved weather that got worse as the game progressed – starting chanting “We want Gloucester.”Watler and Jackson hooked up again for the same play early in the third quarter, this time from 37 yards out to make the score 26-0.Quintana capped off a 53-yard, 12-play (all runs) drive with a 1-yard run up the middle. Classical converted two first downs on the drive.Sisson sprinted in from 72 yards as the Rams’ second team offense got on the board with 4:21 left in the game.”It was a very good all-around game for us,” Durgin said. “We did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”