Beverly football stuns English with last-second touchdown

LYNN – The calendar might say that it’s only the third week of the season but what took place in the rain on Friday at Manning Field was proof positive that the character of a champion can never be questioned.Click here for a photo gallery of last night’s gameDown 21-0 less than 15 minutes in against Lynn English, things didn’t look good for the Beverly football team. But a muffed punt was turned into a touchdown and led to what might be the game of the year on the North Shore when the season is over.The Panthers stormed back and showed their Super Bowl champion form as Dave Rollins’ quarterback sneak with 34.7 seconds left gave Beverly a 36-35 win that saw Kenny Pierce score five touchdowns.”English has an excellent team over there,” Beverly coach Dan Bauer said. “We are very fortunate to be able to come back and get a win.”After taking the Panthers best punch that saw them close to 27-24 late in the third quarter it looked like English (2-1) had taken control for good when Jermaine Kelly scored on a nine yard run on the final play of the third quarter for a 35-24 lead.The Panthers Nick Theriault returned the kickoff to the Bulldog 49, from where Beverly went to work.The hard running of Dom Abate and Theriault systematically moved the ball down field before a pass interference call on a fourth down at the English 18 kept the Panthers drive going.Pierce scored from the three on the next play to cut the lead to 35-30 with 7:17 remaining.”We need to learn how to finish games,” English coach Peter Holey said. “But give Beverly credit for coming back. They are a championship team.”English’s next drive was thwarted by a holding penalty and a sack of Jermaine Kelly, resulting in English punting with 4:42 remaining, putting the Panthers 74 yards from a winning score.Two plays later, the Panthers faced a third and five. Digging deep in their bag of tricks, offensive coordinator Roger Day called for a reverse pass from Brendan Flaherty, who had been out injured since the first series of the game, to Abate for a 42 yard gain to the English 27.Theriault and Abate then helped move the ball inside the 10 just after the 2:00 warning. Four plays later, Rollins snuck in from just outside the goal line to give his team its first lead of the game.English reached its 46 in the final seconds but Kelly was sacked and the final seconds ticked away.”You can’t underestimate the heart of kids sometimes,” Bauer said. “They fought back so hard in this game.”Things started with a bang as Josh Batista returned the opening kick 82 yards for a 6-0 English lead just 11 seconds in. Beverly punted on its first possession and English upped the lead to 14-0 when Kelly and Batista hooked up for a 55 yard touchdown pass.For the second straight week, the Bulldogs came up with a goal line stand and turned it into a touchdown as Batista and Kelly hooked up again, this one from 22 yards for a 21-0 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.Then game the game turning muffed punt which the Panthers recovered and turned into a Pierce touchdown with 7:02 left in the half.Pierce struck again with less than two minutes left in the half to cut the lead to 21-12. But the Bulldogs returned the favor as a pair of penalties led to an eight yard Kelly run with less than a minute left to make it 27-12.Pierce returned the ensuing kick 81 yards for a score to cap a stunning last two minutes and make it 27-18 at the half.