English, Gloucester battle for top spot in NEC North

A year ago, the Lynn English football team took the long trip up Route 128 to Newell Stadium in Gloucester for a showdown with the Fishermen that had nothing more than the Northeastern Conference’s North division crown on the line.But by the time the night was over, the Fishermen had comprehensively dominated English, winning 35-7 on their way to making it to the Division 2A Super Bowl.Turn the calendar ahead 11 months and the two teams once again have found themselves at the crossroads of a championship. On Friday night (7), the two teams will return to the same field (because of a quirk in the schedule due to realignment last year) with the winner taking a big step towards the playoffs.”We are going to come out and play our game,” English coach Peter Holey said. “We are going to come out and run the ball. That’s what we do. But our kids have been loose all week.”The Bulldogs (6-1, 1-0 NEC North) come in off their second shutout in three weeks in a 40-0 win over Revere. But they will be facing a Gloucester team that has been challenged only once en route to a 7-0 record and also posted a shutout last week, beating Peabody 34-0.”We know that they are a good team and can certainly put points on the board,” Gloucester coach Paul Ingram said. “They have a lot of skill players in the backfield and at wide receiver. They’re one of the better teams we’ve played.”Both teams possess explosive offenses. English is averaging a league-best 34.1 points per game while the Fishermen have averaged 33.0 in their seven wins.The Bulldogs will look to quarterback Tyllor McDonald to trigger their explosive spread attack. The junior has been outstanding for most of the season, and he had one of his best performances of the season last week, throwing four touchdowns (setting a school single-season record with 19, second in EMass and first in Division 1A) and accounting for 234 yards of offense in the win over Revere.Gloucester, however, has a pretty fair quarterback of its own in senior Brett Cahill. Overshadowed some by backfield mates Ali D’Angelo and Conor Ressel (16 TDs, a Division 1A-leading 100 points), Cahill put up his best game of the season last week against Peabody.Cahill threw a pair of touchdown passes and added a 27-yard touchdown scramble against a Tanner defense that was geared to stuff the run.”We knew that Brett had a good touch when he got a chance to throw last year,” Ingram said. “We didn’t go into the game expecting to throw the ball that much, but we have kids that can catch the ball.”The offense will provide a unique challenge to defensive coordinators Greg Brotherton of English and Tom Walsh of Gloucester.The Bulldogs have surrendered 19.4 points per game on defense, but the bulk of that came in their wins over Lawrence and Swampscott.”I think that Greg has a good package ready,” Holey said. “We have some things that we’re going to do that we didn’t last year ? and in hindsight we probably should have done.”The Fishermen, meanwhile, have already faced spread offense teams in Swampscott, Andover and Masconomet. So, going against the Bulldogs’ attack will be something not unfamiliar to the Gloucester defense.”We’re a pretty aggressive defense and I don’t think they’ve played against something like that,” Ingram said. “A lot of teams can have a scheme like we do. But we have the quickness to make it work.”Holey also knows that his team is in for a challenge with the Gloucester defense.”We have to handle their pressure. They go to sort of a cover zero and challenge you to beat them,” he said. “And they’re athletic enough to back it up.”