Football: English set to open NEC North slate against Salem

In a little over four weeks’ time, the champion of the Northeastern Conference’s North division will be crowned on Thanksgiving Day.For the Lynn English football team, the road to that title begins on Friday night (7) at Manning Field, when the Bulldogs play host to old rival Salem.English comes into the game off a 34-24 win over Marblehead while the Witches will be mighty motivated after suffering a shocking 13-6 loss to Revere.Bulldogs coach Peter Holey is well aware that his group is bound to see a very angry Witches team on the field Friday.”Salem is a very dangerous team and they will be hungry for a win,” Holey said. “It’s going to be a physical game and our kids have to be ready for that.”It took English a while to get going last Friday against the Magicians, leading only 7-2 at the half and seeing its running game held in check.Holey turned to quarterback Jesse Fowler to get the English offense on track, and he did that with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Travonne Berry-Rogers.”We run well out of the spread, but we had problems with it last week,” Holey said. “Marblehead did a nice job of stopping our zone runs, so we had to go to the pass, and Jesse did it well. It’s good to know that we can do that if we have to.”The English rushing attack did finally take hold, eventually racking up 206 yards as the Bulldogs scored 27 second-half points.”We’re very happy with what we’re doing on offense. (Offensive coordinator) Brian Vaughan has done a nice job,” Holey said.The challenge only gets bigger for English this week with a Salem team that has arguably the best back in the NEC in Melikke Van Alstyne as well as a dangerous quarterback in T.J. Larivee and a punishing defense.”Melikke is going to cause us some problems and the kids know that,” Holey said. “But we took the week off and improved our tackling, and we missed only four against Marblehead. (Defensive coordinator) Greg Brotherton did a nice job of that on the week off.”If there is one area that Holey knows still needs a bit of work, it’s special teams. Against the Magicians, English saw its halftime lead disappear thanks to an 86-yard kickoff return for a score from Brandon Lee.”We’ve got to get better on special teams,” Holey said. “We have to get more physical there. It’s just a matter of who wants it more on those plays.”Gr. Lowell at TechAt Manning Field (4), the Tigers (2-4) finally got back in the win column last week thanks to a commanding 40-8 drilling of Northeast Regional.Tech broke open a 16-8 game at the half with 24 unanswered points in the final 22 minutes. Mikey Lara led the Tiger offense with a pair of touchdown runs and 72 total yards on the ground.Gerrad Fairweather and Anthony Coleman also ran for scores while Josh Cheever returned an interception 30 yards for another.Ryan Murphy garnered Item Defensive Player of the Week honors for his 14-tackle effort, which also included a safety.Classical at PeabodyAt Lee Field (7), the Rams (2-3) come off their bye week and open play in the NEC North against a Peabody club that gave Gloucester fits for a half before falling, 41-12.Nick Hiou continued to have a stellar year for the Tanners (2-4, 0-1 NEC North) as he scored both touchdowns against the Fishermen, the first on a one-yard plunge and the second on a 52-yard pass from Tom Ciulla in the fourth quarter.Danvers at MarbleheadAt Piper Field (7), the Magicians (2-4) gave English all it could handle in a 34-24 loss last Friday, leading 24-20 in the fourth quarter before the Bulldogs rallied for two late scores.Quarterback Ian McKinley threw for 102 yards and a touchdown to Taariq Allen as the Magicians hung in despite gaining only 138 yards in total offense. Brandon Lee returned a kick 86 yards for a touchdown as well.Marblehead will face a Danvers team that fell to 1-5 with a heartbreaking 21-15 loss at Beverly last Saturday. The Falcons had the lead deep into the fourth quarter before Beverly’s Mark Hannable engineered a last-minute drive that culminated wit