Northeast defeats Pope John

LOWELL – It was the ultimate clash of styles on Tuesday at Cawley Stadium as defending Division 4A champion Northeast Regional brought its Wing-T attack in to take on Catholic Central League/Small champ Pope John and its high-powered spread offense.Northeast pounded out 342 yards on the ground while Saugus’ Corey Thurell caught a pair of touchdown passes and added one of three interceptions as the Golden Knights held Pope John to only 110 yards of offense in a 42-0 victory that sends them to the Super Bowl at Curry College on Saturday against Brighton.Northeast42Pope John0 “That team scared me,” Northeast coach Don Heres said. “They had a lot of athletes but we only know how to do one thing and that’s be as physical as we can and grind the ball out.”Northeast (10-2) was brutally efficient on Tuesday as its suffocating defense put a blanket on Tiger stars Malcolm Brown; Malcolm Brown-Simpson; and Jevon Brown-Simpson. Brown caught six passes to finish the year with 71 catches while Malcolm Brown-Simpson was picked off three times by the ballhawking Golden Knights secondary.”Northeast is the defending Super Bowl champion for a reason,” Pope John coach and Lynn native Brian Vaughan said. “We knew coming in that we were going to have to put up some points against them and unfortunately on our end, we couldn’t do that.”The Golden Knights held on downs to begin the game and then used a 23-yard run from Saugus’ Mike Cross (six carries, 60 yards) to cross into Pope John territory for the first time. Four plays later, Brendan Sullivan scored from the five with a Cross 2-point conversion making it 8-0.Northeast then went to its patented onside kick and it worked as it recovered at the Tiger 39. Bobby Novello raced to the end zone on the next play and the Golden Knights led 14-0 after a quarter.”We practiced for that all week but we didn’t execute very well,” Vaughan said.It stayed a 14-0 game until late in the second when Rory Connerty intercepted a pass for Northeast and returned it inside the Pope John 30. Four plays later, Donato DiPietrantonio hit a wide-open Cross in the end zone for a nine yard touchdown and a 22-0 lead at the half following his conversion rush.”We don’t throw it often but Donato does a great job,” Heres said. “He controls things out there and when we do throw it, he’s usually right on the money.”The Tigers (9-3) tried an onside kick to begin the second half but it failed and Northeast began at the Pope John 34. It didn’t take long for the Golden Knights to strike as DiPietrantonio found Thurell for 20 yards and a 28-0 lead.It went from bad to worse for Pope John when Northeast’s kickoff bounced off the leg of an upman and the Golden Knights fell on it at their 49. Thurell and DiPietrantonio went back to work, this time for a 46-yard touchdown and a 36-0 lead with 5:15 left in the third.Thurell’s interception inside the Golden Knights 20 ended Pope John’s best threat of the night and would be paid off when Novello scored from 16 yards out on the first play of the final quarter to close the scoring.”We played a better team (Tuesday) and the scoreboard shows it,” Vaughan said. “I’ve got a team full of underclassmen and if we work hard enough in the offseason, we should be in a good spot for next year.”