English sweats out thrilling victory over tough Peabody

PEABODY – When it mattered most, Lynn English’s marquee players delivered big-time plays and a victory.Jermaine Kelly’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Brown-Simpson with 4:40 remaining and PJ Dorsey’s diving end zone interception with a little more than a minute left enabled the Bulldogs (2-0, 6-2) to exit Lee Field with a wild NEC/CAL Tier One 41-34 decision ofPeabody Friday night.In the aftermath, Bulldogs’ coach Peter Holey called the win “a mulligan” and offered effusive praise of the Tanners.”We got away with one. Those kids (Peabody) played harder than anyone we’ve played all year. If they were keeping score by heart, Peabody would’ve won, 60-0. They’re undermanned but they never quit. I’m just really impressed with how they played and happy for coach (Scott) Wlasuk,” Holey said.Peabody (0-3, 3-4) positioned itself to force OT on quarterback Jason Hiou’s 39-yard pass to Nick Ingham and four consecutive Hiou carries for 22 yards that produced first-and-goal at the English five. It was then that English came with pressure and Jason Lessard and Dorsey sandwiched sacks of two and seven yards around a Hiou incompletion before Dorsey’s sealing pick on fourth-and-goal from the 17.”We hadn’t blitzed the entire game but decided it was time. I’ve said it all year and I’ll say it again – PJ Dorsey is the best player in this league. There may be flashier kids but he’s the best football player,” Holey said.The teams combined for 748 total yards and 34 first downs. Kelly completed 10-of-14 passes for 151 yards and scoring strikes to Brown-Simpson (45 yards), Josh Batista (34 yards) and Kyle O’Connell (21 yards); and rushed for 97 yards and two scores on 17 carries. Dorsey carved out 87 tough yards between the tackles on 19 attempts.Mercurial senior scatback Nat Gaye drove the Tanners with scores of one, 68 and 17 yards and 175 yareds on 18 carries. Hiou did most of his damage on the ground with 82 yards and TD runs of one and 11 yards on 18 carries.The ‘Dogs built a quick 14-0 lead. Kelly capped a game-opening 46-yard drive with a five-yard run. After Lessard recovered a fumble on Peabody’s first play, Kelly found the freshman O’Connell in the back of the end zone from 21 yards and it appeared the Tanners were in for a long night.However, Gaye set up his own one-yard TD plunge with a 64-yard dash to the Bulldogs’ 15. English countered with Batista’s 34-yard catch-and-run for a 21-7 lead on the first play of the second quarter.Kevin Guzofski’s 55-yard interception return to the English six set up Hiou’s one-yard score on fourth-and-goal. Kelly’s nine-yard run extended English’s lead to 27-14 with 47 seconds left in the first half but Hiou engineered a 70-yard scoring drive in the final minute, scoring on an 11-yard scramble on the half’s final play to make it 27-21.Batista’s 40-yard interception return for a touchdown on the second play of the second half gave English its fourth double-digit lead at 34-21 but the Tanners would not go, pulling even on Gaye’s 68-yard scoring dash with 3:38 left in the third and his 17-yard TD run with 7:22 remaining.