Despite turnovers and miscues, English survives Wakefield

WAKEFIELD – It’s not often that a team can survive six turnovers and still come away with a pretty convincing victory. Yet that’s exactly what happened to the Lynn English football team on Friday at Landrigan Field.Jermaine Kelly was picked off three times and the Bulldogs lost three fumbles but thanks to 188 rushing yards and two TD’s from P.J. Dorsey and 119 and a touchdown by Kelly, English took a 21-6 win over the Warriors.”Our defense played really well,” English coach Peter Holey said. “But we can’t have the turnovers that we did. There’s a lot to clean up but still I’m pleased with the win.”Fortunately for English on Friday, the defense came up with another stellar effort. The Bulldogs stuffed Wakefield’s running attack, turning the Warriors into a pass-happy attack and then proceeding to intercept Jamie Bourque twice in his 42 attempts.”Its only game two but I like the way that our defense is playing,” Holey said. “Coach (Greg) Brotherton has done a fantastic job with them.”Neither team could score on its first possession before an errant snap resulted in Wakefield taking over at the English five with 6:18 left in the opening period.Two Josh Puccio runs and an incomplete pass netted four yards, leaving the Warriors three feet short of paydirt on fourth down. Puccio got the call again and was stuffed by the English defensive line for no gain.Dorsey and Kelly then went about turning the momentum completely around.A 20-yard dash by Dorsey got English out of the hole. One play later, Dorsey tacked on 25 more yards to quickly move the ball to the Warrior 45. Kelly kept for gains of 15 and 23 on the next two plays, moving the ball to the seven as the offensive line opened gaping holes.Dorsey did the rest as he scored one play later to give English a 7-0 lead.”That goal line stand was huge,” Holey said. “And then we put up our drive of the season so far by going the length of the field to score.”English was marching again early in the second quarter but another errant snap gave the Warriors the ball at their 49. Eight plays later, Wakefield was in the endzone as Bourque scored from two yards out to make it 7-6 after a missed conversion pass.The Bulldogs responded by immediately driving inside the 15 but saw the drive snuffed out on an Alec Brown interception. English got one more chance with 1:59 left in the half but saw Dorsey tackled four yards short on a screen pass to keep it 7-6 at the half.”We let them hang around way too long and we can’t do that,” Holey said.Wakefield went three-and-out to begin the second half and English went back to its punishing ground attack as Dorsey and Kelly toted the ball inside the 15 again. But once again, English got nothing from a long drive as the Warrior defense stiffened at the 12.Wakefield then drove to the English 34 but four straight incompletions killed the march. Two plays later, Kelly raced 53 yards down the left sideline to give English a 14-6 lead after three quarters.Early in the fourth, Dorsey finally allowed the Bulldog faithful to breathe a little bit easie as he capped a four play, 51 yard drive with a 12 yard touchdown run for a 21-6 lead with 8:32 to go.