Sims leads Beverly football past Peabody

BEVERLY ? In a game that felt a lot closer than the score and stats would indicate, Rashad Sims put on an absolute clinic leading Beverly’s football team to a 33-16 win over Peabody”He is a special player,” Beverly’s coach Dan Bauer said. “A lot of credit has to be given to the line though. They did a real good job moving around and made it a lot easier for (Sims).”How amazing was Sims performance? On 20 touches, the senior captain piled up 261 all purpose yards, rushing for 229 yards. He scored two rushing touchdowns and added a 32-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter that ended any chances of a fourth quarter comeback.”We came into the game knowing if we could neutralize the outside sweep we would have a good chance,” Tanners coach Scott Wlasuk said. “Once (Sims) gets to that second level, he can cause some damage. He is a really tough runner.”On the very first play of the second half, Sims took a sweep to his right 81 yards all the way down to Peabody’s four-yard line. This set up a one-yard touchdown for quarterback Mark Hannable.The Tanners actually dominated the first 10 minutes of the contest.Nick Hiou gave the Tanners the first points of the game. On what looked like it would be a sure-fire loss of yards when Tom Ciulla’s handoff to Hiou was fumbled, he picked up the ball running to his right and managed to get make a strong cut up field getting around the corner. 40 yards later he was standing in the end zone.”I thought we had (Hiou) stopped in the backfield,” said Bauer. “He really had some break-away speed. Once he turned up field he scored on pure speed.”Hiou finished the game with 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns.The one blemish of Sims game came on the very next Panther position. He fumbled the ball at Panthers 46-yard line. This would set up a 35-yard field goal by Justin Provencher”We definitely started out slow,” said Bauer. “It took a while to into rhythm. But it was nice to see the guys get flustered out there. They showed a lot of toughness.”Hannable showed great promise running Beverly’s spread offense. The junior went 5-14 for 58 yards, scoring two touchdowns and rendering one interception. He also rushed for 13 yards.”He is still trying to grasp the offense,” said Bauer. “But he is playing with a lot of poise out there. He made some very nice reads and plays.”Aside from his two touchdowns, Hannable’s finest play came in the closing minutes of the third quarter. The Tanners managed to collapse the pocket on both corners. He managed to slip out of two potential sacks, and found Steven Dubois on the sideline.”The entire game we had players in positions to make plays,” Wlasuk said, “we missed some tackles and (The Panthers) made some great plays. He completed a great pass.Mark D’Addario also had a nice performance for the Tanners. He rushed for 64 yards on 14 carries.