Peabody football holds on for last-minute win over Danvers

DANVERS ? All these last-minute wins aren’t doing much to improve Peabody High football coach Scott Wlasuk’s health.The Tanners survived two chances by Danvers to score in the last six minutes to escape Dr. Deering Stadium with a 21-14 win on Friday night.After losing to Cambridge on a touchdown pass two weeks ago and then beating Arlington on a late field goal this past Sunday, Peabody didn’t wrap up this one until Jonathan Balcacer intercepted a Greg Ladd pass at Peabody’s 5-yard line with 52 seconds left.”I told (the Peabody players) these games aren’t doing much for my blood pressure,” Wlasuk said.The win wiped out a lot of negative history for the Tanners, who had won just one game in each of the last two years and hadn’t put together consecutive victories since 2005.”For what this program has gone through in the last couple of years, it’s good to put back-to-back wins together,” said Wlasuk. “We could have even been 3-1, but I’m proud of the way the kids have played.”Only attempting one pass during the game, the Tanners got touchdown runs of 20 and 57 yards from Mark D’Addarrio (129 yards-17 carries) and added another 1-yard TD run from Nick Hiou early in the third quarter to take a 21-7 lead.The Falcons (1-3), who picked up just two first downs in the first half, found their offense and scored on a 9-yard run by Justin Shairs with 9:51 left in the game.Danvers drove the ball to Peabody’s 1-yard line before fumbling with 5:42 left, and then moved to the Tanners’ 26-yard line before Balcacer’s interception.”Those things happen,” Danvers coach John Sullivan said. “Turnovers win ballgames, and we didn’t win the battle of turnovers.”Peabody made its first drive of the game look easy, marching 67 yards in 10 plays, mostly alternating runs by D’Addario and Hiou, until D’Addario busted off right tackle and ran for a 20-yard score with 3:40 left in the first quarter.Danvers’ Eric Burgos returned the ensuing kickoff 54 yards to Peabody’s 24-yard line, and four plays later Ladd found Cody Croft for a 5-yard touchdown pass, with Croft making a good toe-tap along the right sideline to stay in bounds.The Tanners took a 14-7 lead at halftime on D’Addario’s 70-yard TD burst, on the second play of a drive that started at the Tanners’ 19-yard line. The scoring play went up the middle, with D’Addario breaking a tackle at Danvers’ 45 and then outracing everyone to the end zone.Peabody’s scoring drive in the third quarter featured the only pass of the game for the Tanners, with Tom Ciulla connecting for 43 yards along the right sideline to Derek West to Danvers’ 8. Hiou smashed his way into the end zone three plays later.Danvers got within one score with a 53-yard touchdown drive that lasted 3:13. The key play was a 19-yard throw from Ladd to Croft that set up Shairs’ scoring run two plays later.The Tanners looked like they had put the game away when Hiou went 68 yards around left end with 8:25 left in the game, but the touchdown was called back due to a block in the back and Dan Skinner recovered a fumble for Danvers on the next play.Danvers picked up two first downs and had a first-and-goal from the one, but Howard Brown came up with a fumble for Peabody on the next play.Peabody moved the chains twice before punting to Danvers, which took over at its own 31 with 1:47 remaining. Ladd hooked up with Croft and Skinner twice each, including once to Croft for a 6-yard gain on fourth-and-1, to advance to the Tanners’ 26 before the drive ended with Balcacer’s interception.”I can’t give our defense enough credit,” Wlasuk said. “During that last drive, Ladd was unbelievable. He was hitting open guys under pressure.”