Tuesday morning quarterbacking: Tech-Northeast game has solemn legacy

Friday, Nov. 27, 1987, is one of those moments that stay indelibly etched in your mind. It was the day after Thanksgiving, and local fans were waking up after a day of overindulging on both turkey and football.The previous Saturday, Lynn Tech had defeated rival Northeast Regional easily, with Rick Drislane leading the way. The headline reverberated in The Item that following Monday: “Drislane runs wild as Tech defeats Northeast.”Who could have possibly known that less than a week later, Drislane – who is certainly among Tech’s greatest athletes ever – would die in a horrific automobile accident on Thanksgiving night?That’s the news that greeted Lynn like a punch in the stomach on the day after Thanksgiving in 1987.Tech and Northeast were rivals long before the Tigers hooked up with St. Mary’s for the Thanksgiving Eve Classic. Each school played its final game of the season on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, yet they treated it as if it was a Turkey Day game. Sadly, the two schools have something else in common – athletes who died tragically well before their time. Northeast’s Ed Repucci also died young, as the result of an auto accident.These days, the two schools make it a point to honor their fallen athletes after each Tech-Northeast game. And Saturday, the tradition continued. Northeast defeated Tech, 36-6, and after the game, both teams gathered in a circle at midfield and were told of their fallen athletic ancestors, and reminded of how fragile all of this is ? and how easily it can all be taken away.Each school also awarded an MVP trophy. For the Golden Knights, the choice was rather easy. Bobby Novello scored four touchdowns and ran for 198 yards in his team’s victory, and was the obvious choice for the Repucci Award.For Tech, the Drislane Award went to Pedro Martinez, who, despite the one-sided nature of the game, didn’t take a play off the entire morning.These are the lessons, and the traditions that transcend the X’s and O’s of high school sports, and make them the valuable teaching tools they continue to be.Sometimes, the camera doesn’t tell the whole story.Channel 25 came to Lynn Friday night to feature the Revere-English game, and showed highlights on its late-night newscast.But in the process of showing Jermaine Kelly of English running for a touchdown, the camera panned an entire section of empty seats on the visitors’ side of Manning Field, on the far side leading to the end zone closest to the scoreboard.If you didn’t go to the game, and saw that, you’d be left scratching your head wondering whether anyone goes anymore.However, according to English athletic director Gary Molea, the senior night crowd was the second biggest of the season – helped along by a healthy Revere contingent.Facility manager John Kasian said there were over 1,000 people there, and that the only crowd thus far that eclipsed it was the one for the English-Gloucester game that opened the season (before anyone knew how badly the Fishermen would struggle).You can’t say Lynn doesn’t produce athletes. Aside from the ones that attend the four high schools in the city, there are several Lynners making noise elsewhere. Rufus Rushins continues his fine freshman season at Bishop Fenwick. Rushins scored two touchdowns Friday in the Crusaders’ 35-0 rout over Archbishop Williams. And Gerald Kahari of St. John’s Prep, a junior, had two interceptions and caught four passes for 53 yards in the Eagles’ 21-6 win over Somerville.And let us not forget the continued presence of Malcolm Brown (along with Saugus’ Robert McMasters) with Pope John XXIII of Everett.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].