Thanksgiving 2010: Runner finds both ups and downs in first season at Tech

At first glance, you might look at the Lynn Tech football team’s season to date and say that it has been a struggle for the Tigers this year.However, first-year head coach James Runner is also taking the “glass-is-half-full” perspective.”We knew, going in, that it would be tough,” said Runner, who took over from Gary Sverker after the latter went out with a State Vocational Super Bowl title in 2009. “They accepted the challenge. We’ll have a full year (of his leadership) under our belt in the offseason. We’ll work harder even. We have a strong nucleus.”The final chapter of the Tigers’ season will be a Thanksgiving Eve matchup with St. Mary’s, a showdown of Lynn schools located so close to each other, on Neptune Boulevard and Tremont Street, that you can’t call it “cross-town.”Football-wise, the teams also have some connections. Runner played for current Spartans coach Matt Durgin in high school ? when Durgin took over as Classical coach in Runner’s senior year there.”I have a lot of respect for Coach Durgin,” Runner said.There is another connection. Runner won a Super Bowl ring as an assistant to former St. Mary’s coach Mike Stellato. Runner served three years on the St. Mary’s staff.”It means a lot to me,” Runner said of facing the Spartans. “It was the first place I ever coached high school. I was defensive coordinator for a year. I was 19 when I started working. I learned so much.”Now Runner will try to apply his knowledge to facing a balanced St. Mary’s running game of Nick Day, Todd Collier and Ryan Barrows.”Day is your changeup,” he said. “Barrows is pretty much your fastball. Collier is pretty much your knockout. Collier is the total package, if you ask me. He’s 5-6, 5-5, and he hits like (former New England Patriots star) Rodney Harrison. He’s like a bowling ball on pins.”As for the Tigers’ plans?”Obviously we’ll play extremely hard,” Runner said. “We prepared ourselves in the right way ? We’ll let it all hang out. We gained a lot of confidence.”For the Tigers, the season began with a jolt of confidence, followed by an equally sudden deflation. Tech posted season-opening victories over Marian and Minuteman before player ineligibility issues led the school to forfeit both games. Since then, the Tigers have won just once.”If that stuff didn’t occur, the eligibility, we’d have won a couple more,” Runner said. “Morale went down ? It took the wind out of our sails. It’s something we’ve been talking about. In my heart I feel we’re 3-6 (instead of 1-8). I never cheat. I would rather lose by 70.”After a 2-0 start became an 0-2 start, the Tigers dropped two more games to Whittier and Manchester-Essex. The loss to Whittier had the coach concerned.”Our first two games were shutouts,” he said. “Against Whittier we gave the ball up on our side of the 40. I am a defensive coach whose motto is, ‘Offensive wins games, defense wins championships.'”That said, Runner was also making some pleasant discoveries in adverse situations. In the 22-6 loss to Manchester-Essex he played sophomore Kennedy Gomes at cornerback and “never took him off defense” afterward. Gomes has two interceptions to date this season in addition to playing as the Tigers’ quarterback.Tech put it together against Greater Lowell for a 28-10 trouncing of the Gryphons at Manning Field that brought the Tigers’ record to 1-4. However, they dropped their next four games heading into the season finale.An additional factor that hurt the Tigers was the loss of one of their stars, Richie Warren Jr., to a hand injury in midseason.”We committed a little more to the run,” Runner said, although he added that wide receivers E.J. Ward (who also drew praise for his defense) and Nick Rudolph and running back Pedro Martinez all stepped up in Warren’s absence. The team does have Warren available for the Thanksgiving Eve game.”He’s probably one of the fastest players in the entire league,” the coach said. “It’s another thing to try to catch him. He’ll be a big threat in the Thanksgiving ga