Beverly, English ready for battle of unbeatens

Whenever Lynn English and Beverly get together on the gridiron, the result is a battle that usually goes down to the final moments. On Saturday (1) at Hurd Stadium, the two old rivals will meet in a non-conference game that features two of the unbeaten teams in the Northeastern Conference.Last year, the teams met on the opening night of the season and it was the Panthers who prevailed, 6-0, in a driving rainstorm that saw English fumble inside the Beverly five with three minutes left.Beverly coach Dan Bauer knows his team will have its hands full against the spread offense of the Bulldogs.”They can stretch the field vertically and horizontally and can run the ball,” Bauer said. “It’s a multi-dimensional problem when you play them because they give you so many problems in a lot of ways.”The English offense has been a problem for its opponents in the Bulldogs’ two wins. The Bulldogs recorded 40 points in a win over Lawrence and then followed up with a 33-21 win over Winthrop last week.One of the reasons for English’s early success is the play of junior quarterback Tyllor MacDonald, who has thrown seven touchdown passes in the two wins. Last week against the Vikings, the junior threw for 224 yards and four scores, three of those going to Travonne Berry-Rogers.”Tyllor definitely grew up in the first game and he continued his development last week,” English coach Peter Holey said. “He’s come a long way in a year and he’s improved himself immensely.”Berry-Rogers has caught five of McDonald’s seven TD passes this season and is one of three dangerous threats on the perimeter for the Bulldogs, along with Ryan Woumn and Taron Seaforth.The Bulldogs, however, will be without bruising running back Jermaine Patterson on Saturday. Patterson suffered a separated shoulder against Winthrop and is out for Saturday. Sam Hill, Christian Figueroa and Derek Stevens will take his place in the backfield.”It’s going to be hard to replace Jermaine, but we have guys who are more than capable of stepping in and doing the job,” Holey said.Beverly has plenty of weapons of its own and they were all on full deployment last week in a 25-6 win over Melrose in the first night game in the history of Hurd Stadium.Joe Wioncek got the call to start in place of an ill Mark Hannable and all the strong-armed QB did was throw for 146 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for another score and will be in command again for the Panthers on Saturday.”The kids rallied around Joe, and he did alright,” Bauer said. “We always say that you never know when your number is going to be called, so you have to be ready.”Running back Dylan Terry carried 15 times for 88 yards in his first career start and Justin Marrs and Steve Dubois each caught a touchdown pass. But Bauer knows his team needs to be on its game Saturday.”It’s a big game for both teams and a big test for us for sure,” Bauer said. “For us, it’s a second-week game and that usually shows where the team is headed.”The Bulldogs’ defense was outstanding in the win over Winthrop, intercepting Will Milano four times and holding the Vikings to 192 yards of total offense. But it was a pair of special teams breakdowns that went for touchdowns and kept Winthrop around.Those mistakes are ones that Holey knows English can’t afford to have on Saturday.”I think that made the kids realize how important every phase of the game is,” Holey said. “We’ve got to clean the special teams stuff up and we can’t win the game with the amount of penalties that we had. The kids realize that and they’ve worked hard at it.”