Holey gets first win in romp over Danvers

LYNN – The Lynn English football team played with a purpose on Friday at Manning Field.Having let a chance to beat Beverly slip away in the rain last week, the Bulldogs were a very determined group against Danvers and it showed.English put 430 yards of offense on the board while the defense held the Falcons to 152 yards of total offense as Jermaine Patterson’s three touchdown runs led the way to a 31-7 win, Peter Holey’s first as head coach of his alma mater.”They practiced well all week,” Holey said after getting the gratuitous Gatorade bath from his team. “They were a very angry group of young men after last Friday and they were determined. And I was happy to see that.”After failing to convert on its chances in the red zone last week, English didn’t miss out on chances to get points against the Falcons.”They got up and kept the momentum going,” Holey said. “They didn’t take their foot off the gas.”The tone for the evening was set from the beginning as the Bulldogs took the ball and marched right down the field.Jesse Fowler hit Taron Seaforth for a 19-yard completion to the Danvers 41. Arzu then gashed the Falcons for 16 yards.Two plays later, Justin Young caught a nine-yard pass before Patterson took over for the final 16 yards on two runs and a 6-0 lead just 2:22 in.After an exchange of punts, the English special teams came up with a big play when Angel Tejada blocked a Zach Ryan punt to give English a short field.From the Falcon 40, Patterson went to work for 28 more yards to the Danvers seven. The drive eventually reached the three before an illegal shift penalty on the final play of the first quarter proved costly, eventually leading to Cory Burt’s 25-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left.The Bulldog defense stepped up again as Kyle Smith picked off a Greg Ladd pass on the next possession.”(English) beat us in every facet,” Danvers coach John Sullivan said.But the drive stalled at the Falcon 42 as English turned the ball over on downs. Danvers, bolstered by the stop, would take the lead moments later.Ladd faked a dive into the line and rolled left. Colin Cooper snuck behind the defense and caught Ladd’s pass in stride for a 46-yard score and a 7-6 lead after Nick Pellino’s PAT.With a little under four minutes left in the half, the Bulldogs went about responding and did so with a 10-play, 67-yard march.Patterson kept the drive going with a 10-yard run on third down from the English 41. Then just after the two-minute warning, Charlie Rucker caught a screen pass and rumbled 23 yards to the Falcon 14.Arzu took the ball to the one before Patterson powered in with 1:26 left to make it 12-7 at the half.”That was big for us at the end of the half,” Holey said. “We came right back and responded. The kids didn’t get down.”Eric Burgos gave the Falcons a jolt when he returned the second-half kick to the English 33. But the Falcons fizzled when Ladd was stopped on fourth-and-eight at the 31.”We came out strong and had that great return and then stalled offensively,” Sullivan said.English, meanwhile, wasn’t stuck in neutral on offense as it racked up 227 yards and 12 first downs in the first half. And after the stand to begin the second, the Bulldogs drove down the field and delivered the knockout punch.Arzu and company got English in position to score before Fowler and Rucker delivered the haymaker, a 45-yard catch-and-run down the right sideline that increased the lead to 18-7 with 4:21 left in the third.A three-and-out on the next possession got the ball right back to English and Fowler. The senior signal-caller hit Young for a 46-yard gain before gaining 12 yards on a keeper to the six.Patterson did the rest, bulling his way in from the two to give English a 25-7 lead after the third quarter.”It was good to see Jesse hit a couple of long balls and get some confidence in himself to just let it go,” Holey said.The English defense sealed the win in the fourth quarter. Paul Lenzie recovered a Justin Shairs fumble on Danvers’ f