Rain can’t stop Classical from rolling past Winthrop

LYNN – It was a less than perfect night out at Manning Field on Friday but the Lynn Classical football team dealt with the harsh elements in about as good a way as a team could.Winthrop12Classical31 Putting together a solid, four-quarter effort like coach Tim Phelps had preached all week, the Rams got three touchdowns from fullback Eric Sisson and a pair of TDs from Nick Grassa while the defense shut down Winthrop and its star, Nick McCarthy, en route to a 31-12 win.Click here for a photo gallery.”We stressed execution this week,” Phelps said. “We knew we had to play good offense and solid Classical defense and we did that.”It was a near flawless performance by the Rams (3-1), as Sisson ran for 177 yards before being dinged up midway through the third quarter. Classical scored on three of its four first-half possessions and then added two more third-quarter scores to salt the game away.”Classical is a very good football team,” Winthrop coach Sean Driscoll said. “Against them, it’s assignment football and we had some breakdowns that they took advantage of.”McCarthy returned the game’s opening kick to the Viking 45 before things started to go downhill fast for Winthrop. A fumble on third and eight at the 47 led to a turnover and three Sisson runs later, Classical led 6-0.The Ram defense forced a punt on the next possession and Classical got the ball back with 4:39 left in the quarter. Driving all the way to the Viking 46 as time expired, Classical doubled its lead on the first play of the second period when Grassa kept on a fourth-and-five and dashed 46 yards to make it 12-0.”Nick has been playing good for us all year and that was a big play by him at the time,” Phelps said.The Vikings (0-4) drove into Classical territory on their next possession but the Rams rose up and stuffed McCarthy on fourth-and-four at the 41 to turn the ball over on downs. Classical took advantage of the stop and struck again as Sisson raced 25 yards up the gut to cap a seven-play drive and make it 18-0 at the half.”Eric has been good for us all year and some of those holes he had were pretty big,” Phelps said. “SO the offensive line did a great job blocking in front of him.”Classical got the ball to begin the second half and Sisson picked up where he left off. He did all the work on a 66-yard march that he capped with a 57-yard dash through the defense to make it 25-0 after Grassa’s extra point.The Vikings’ first possession of the third quarter resulted in another three-and-out but a good punt put Classical inside its 30 with 6:55 left. It took nine plays and a little over five minutes for the Rams to capitalize as a 41-yard jaunt by Joe Scuzzarella got the ball to the one, from where Grassa snuck it in for a 31-0 lead.The fourth quarter would give both teams a shot at emptying the bench as the Vikings got touchdowns from Joe Clougherty and Ruben Powell in the final four minutes to get on the board.