St. John’s Prep, Central Catholic continue rivalry

As non-league rivalries go, St. John’s-Central Catholic is among the best ? in all sports.”We play them in everything,” said St. John’s coach Jim O’Leary. “It’s one of the best non-league rivalries there is. And what’s good about it is that we have kids from both schools who cross over ? kids from Andover, North Andover, North Reading, Georgetown, places like that.”We have a lot of great (Catholic Conference) rivalries,” he said, “but it’s not the same flavor, because the kids don’t see each other any other time, the way they do with Peabody-Salem or Swampscott-Marblehead, or the Lynn schools.”The recent history between the two schools is rich, especially in basketball, where the Eagles had to go through Central last year to win their first-ever state title.”But it’s competitive in all sports,” O’Leary said.The schools have had some great football games between them too and they’ll resume that rivalry Saturday (7) at Lawrence Stadium.”This year, they’re a lot like us,” O’Leary said. “They graduated a lot of seniors, and, last year, came within a play or two of making the Super Bowl.”And like us,” O’Leary said, “they play a tough schedule. They lost a tough one to Marlborough last week, which is a good Central Mass. program. They’re rebuilding.”O’Leary goes into the game with a banged-up quarterback. Tommy Gaudet hurt his shoulder in last week’s 13-7 loss to Dracut. But O’Leary says he’ll play.”His shoulder is still sore,” he said. “I don’t know how he’s going to be, but he’ll play no matter what. He’s a captain. He’s competitive.”Other games:St. Mary’s at Martha’s VineyardAt Martha’s Vineyard (1), the Spartans visit the island having routed Cambridge Rindge & Latin, 35-0, last week, giving coach Matt Durgin his 100th win.As expected, the Spartans got a stellar performance from senior running back/defensive back Todd Collier, who ran for 147 yards, scored a touchdown, picked off a pass and had two deflections.Also rushing for over 100 yards and scoring three times, was Cory Donahue, a player Durgin is counting on to pick up the slack left by the departure of Nick Day.Amesbury at LynnfieldAt Lynnfield Middle School (11), the Pioneers may have lost 27-14 to Newburyport, but they may have found themselves a running back.Mike Karavetsos ran for two touchdowns and finished with 113 yards. Amesbury, 4-7 last season, was a 28-7 winner last week over Manchester-Essex.