Football: Six Thursday games on tap this week

Because Yom Kippur begins at sundown Friday, the weekly high school football schedule is spread out over three days – with six games to be played Thursday.For the most part, it’s a week of unusual pairings as area teams continue to go through their non-league schedules.The Lynn teams are in action Friday and Saturday, with none of them playing league games.Two of Thursday’s games will be played in the afternoon: Beverly at Peabody and Triton at Swampscott. The rest will be played at 7 p.m.Beverly at PeabodyAt Lee Field (3), this game has the potential to be a barnburner. The two teams between them have one loss, and that happened in Week 1 when the Panthers fell to Concord-Carlisle. Since then, however, Beverly has scored successive victories against Classical, English and Winthrop.The biggest one, as far as the Panthers are concerned, occurred two weeks ago at Manning Field when Beverly spotted English a 21-0 lead in the second quarter before storming back to win, 36-35. Kenny Pierce had five touchdowns in that game, and was named The Item’s offensive player of the week.The Tanners defeated Gloucester last week and are 3-0. So far, Peabody’s star player has been Nat Gaye, who ran for more than 200 yards last week (the second time he’s gone over 200) and scored three touchdowns. Jason Hiou added two more in the Tanners’ 41-26 victory over the winless Fishermen.Triton at SwampscottAt Blocksidge Field (4), the Big Blue have opened the season with four straight victories. Saturday, they had a little trouble getting their act together against English, leading 12-5 at the break.However, they rolled in the second half, and ended up winning, 33-19, with Mike Walsh accounting for five touchdowns. Walsh ended up 19-for-32, for 259 yards through the air. He ran for an additional 65.Triton is 3-1 thus far, including a surprising 28-20 win last week over Masconomet.Lynnfield at DanversAt Dr. Deering Field (7), the Pioneers are licking their wounds after last week’s 40-16 loss to St. Mary’s while the Falcons hope to duplicate last week’s performance, in which they clobbered Saugus, 47-14.Mike Karavetsos was the bright spot in Lynnfield’s loss, throwing two touchdown passes. The Pioneers are 2-2, after having opened the season by falling to Newburyport before scoring back-to-back wins over Amesbury and Bishop Fenwick.For Danvers, brothers Nick and Alex Valles scored two touchdowns each in the win over Saugus.Newburyport at MarbleheadAt Piper Field (7), the Magicians (3-1) are coming off a win last Friday night over Hingham in which Will Quigley scored every way imaginable. He caught a 72-yard scoring pass from Gus Percy for one, ran for a 15-yard score, and got the third one on a 77-yard kickoff return.The Clippers, 2-2, opened the season with two straight wins before falling to Hamilton-Wenham two weeks ago and North Andover last week.North Reading at FenwickAt Donaldson Field (7), the Crusaders finally broke into the win column last Friday night, 30-13 over Georgetown, thanks to Rufus Rushins’ three touchdowns and 177 yards on the ground.Rushins, a freshman from Lynn, played last year for the Lynn Chargers of the North East Conference of the Youth Football League.After blanking Saugus, 20-0, in Week 1, the Hornets had lost two straight before rebounding last week with a victory over Austin Prep.Gloucester at MasconometAt Masconomet (7), the Fishermen are still looking for their first win of the season. The Chieftains fell last week, 28-20, to Triton.