Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking: Score one for the offenses this week

In a day and age when defenses are getting bigger, stronger and a lot more athletic and quick, offenses have to keep up with the times to stay a step ahead of their counterparts on the field.Offense proved to be the big winner this past week as 13 different players would rush for over 100 yards in a game ? with three teams each having more than one player eclipse the century mark.Leading the way was St. Mary’s this week as Matt Durgin’s Spartans put three players – Todd Collier, Nick Day and Ryan Barrows – over the 100-yard mark in a 48-28 win over Pope John. In all, the Spartans rushed for 404 yards as a team in the win over the Tigers.Not far behind was Lynn English, as the Bulldogs’ high-powered offense showed it can grind it out with the best of them, rushing for 355 yards in a 31-12 win over Winthrop on Friday. Wide receiver-turned-tailback Melvin Tavares rushed for 154 yards while Tyllor McDonald went for 132 against the Vikings.The comeback of the week goes to Peabody, however, as the Tanners hung 34 points on Cambridge en route to a 34-6 win after being blanked by St. John’s in game one.Nat Gaye and Jason Hiou were part of a rare feat as both rushed for 90-yard touchdowns on consecutive plays ? and it would have been three plays in a row if Hiou had not seen a 90-yard run called back for holding.Not surprisingly, each of the teams that put a rusher over the 100-yard mark won their games this week.In a time when the defense has begun to catch up with the offense, give this week to the offenses.File these under the heading of “statistics can sometimes be very deceiving.”The Swampscott defense was on the field for almost the entire first half on Friday against Winchester ? but allowed no points to keep the Big Blue in the game with the Sachems.The Swampscott offense turned the tide in the second half, scoring touchdowns on three of its first five possessions to pull away to a 22-6 win.In that same vein, Revere only ran 30 plays compared to Whittier’s 72 on Saturday. But in those 30 plays, the Patriots racked up 307 yards of offense and pulled out a 40-34 overtime win against the Wildcats.Salem quarterback Brad Skeffington has been one of the season’s top stories through the first two weeks of the season. After taking a licking last season for the Witches, the senior has turned things around and compiled a year’s worth of touchdowns into his team’s 48-20 win over Saugus on Friday. Skeffington accounted for 367 of his club’s 431 yards of total offense and five of the seven touchdowns the Witches put on the board.A tip of the hat to new Tech coach James Runner, who guided the Tigers to a 27-0 win over Marian in his inaugural outing. Of course, his team treated him to the obligatory Gatorade bath as time ran down.Manning Field will be one of the spots to be this upcoming Friday as four of the Northeastern Conference’s top teams will meet in a rare doubleheader.A pair of inter-division games are on the docket as Beverly, sitting at a rare 0-2, will take on Lynn English in the 5 p.m. game before reigning NEC South champion Marblehead takes on Lynn Classical at 7:30 in the nightcap.