English football team falls hard in Gloucester

GLOUCESTER – The 2008 version of the Gloucester football team might not be as talented as the team that won the Division 2A Super Bowl last season. But as Lynn English found out on Friday, this Fishermen team is still pretty good.Taylor Burbine’s 169 rushing yards and three touchdowns led an attack that gained 349 yards on the ground as the Fishermen claimed a second straight NEC North crown with a 35-7 win on a rainy night at Newell Stadium.Click here for a photo gallery of last night’s game”Flat out, we got beat by a better team,” English coach Peter Holey said. “It’s a learning experience for us. The way Gloucester plays with intensity is how this program has to play to be a championship program.”With the graduation of two thirds of its championship backfield from last season, there were questions if the Fishermen could make another run.Well, Burbine and Ross Carlson answered those.Burbine, who had a second straight stellar game after missing the previous three contests, helped break the game open after Carlson had given Gloucester an early lead.”You look at him and you wonder how he can hurt you,” Gloucester coach Paul Ingram said about Burbine. “But its amazing what he can do with the football.As good as Gloucester’s offense was on Friday, the Fishermen’s defense was even more spectacular. English quarterback Jesse Fowler was constantly harried from the word go as the Bulldogs finished with only seven yards rushing and 153 total yards in the contest.”Jesse was running for his life all night,” Holey said. “He just didn’t have time to get the ball off.”Neither team got much done in the opening minutes before the Fishermen special teams unit turned the switch on for the home team.After Burbine made a finger tip deflection on a third down pass, Carlson busted through the line and blocked Charlie Rucker’s punt from the Bulldog 27. One play later, Carlson got Gloucester on the board with a 20-yard sweep around right end to make it 7-0 after the first of Giacomo Romeo’s five extra points.It was still 7-0 early in teh second quarter when Ryan Woumn returned a punt to the Gloucester 30. But the attacking Fishermen defense sacked Fowler twice, forcing a punt that pinned Gloucester at its two.Carlson got the Fishermen out of jail with a 16 yard gain to the 18. Burbine did the rest when he took a double handoff and raced 82 yards down the left sideline to make it 14-0 with 8:13 left in the half.”We came out with a good gameplan and the kids executed,” Ingram said.Following another English punt, the Fishermen used a 23-yard pass from Rick Gallant to Burbine to ignite another scoring drive. The nine play, 60 yard march ended when Burbine went 14 yards untouched off the right side for a 21-0 halftime lead.After running roughshod through the English defense for two quarters, the Fishermen got the ball to start the second half, looking to turn out the lights.But it was the Bulldogs who rose to the occasion, shutting down Gloucester throughout the third quarter.”You’ve got to give them credit,” Ingram said about English. “It wasn’t as easy for us as the score indicates.”The problem was the ENglish offense continued to struggle against the Gloucester defense. Dylan Maki’s seventh interception of the season late in the third quarter put the Fishermen in position to salt away their second straight conference title.And with their typical execution, the Fishermen did just that, marching 76 yards in 12 plays on the back of Romeo and Gilbert Brown. Burbine put the cap on the evening when dove over the pile for a three yard touchdown and a 28-0 lead with 8:34 to go.COnor Ressel added Gloucester’s final touchdown with 5:40 left on a 40 yard scamper down the right sideline before the Bulldogs finally got on the board with 3:48 left thanks to a 48-yard pass from Fowler to Justin Young.”This is a tribute to these kids hard work,” Ingram said. “They know what’s expected of them.”