Gloucester football squeaks past Classical

GLOUCESTER – The Gloucester football team christened refurbished Newell Stadium Friday night by eking out a win over Classical in a game that featured a crushing ground game by the Fishermen.The game came down to a 24-yard field goal by Elijah Horne with 2:22 left in the third quarter that came after the Fishermen took the opening kick of the half and marched 62 yards in 13 plays before the kick.The Rams had two chances to win it late, but both rallies fell short. The biggest crusher came with 2:32 to go in the game when the Rams fumbled on a first and goal from the Gloucester 10, with the Fishermen recovering.Classical had another shot with under a minute to go, but the Rams turned the ball over on downs with 48 seconds left to play. In between, punter Jordan Pallazola took an intentional safety by running out of the end zone rather than kicking.”We’re hoping we learn from this,” said Classical coach Tim Phelps. “We have to come together as a team.”We made far too many mistakes tonight,” Phelps said. “We were sloppy and we had a couple of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties that hurt us as well.”In between there, Jordan Pallazola took intentional safety rather than punt.The Reams faced poor field position throughout the first half. After repelling Gloucester’s first possession at the 11, they couldn’t defend the short field a second time.Following Mike Decaro’s 11-hard punt return, the Fishermen covered 31 yards in four plays with Pallazola’s 15-yard rumble preceding John Curcuru’s 10-yard scoring sweep with 2:04 left in the first period. The PAT failed leaving it at 6-0. Both Pallazola (19 carries, 81 yards) and Curcuru (19-108) ran wild all night as the Fishermen had a huge advantage in time of possssion.The Rams responded in a hurry. Devin Crayton’s (4 carries, 69 yards) 44-yard dash to the Gloucester 14 set up Jordan Brown’s (4-for-7, 62 yards) 14-yard TD on which the senior swept the right side unscathed after a fabulous ball fake sucked in the entire Gloucester defense for 6-6 tie on the final play of the first quarter.Gloucester played keep away in the second quarter, putting together a 14-play, 56-yard scoring march that took 9:23 off the clock. Pallazola pounded in from two yards for a 12-6 lead. The two-point rush failed but the Fishermen held a 12-6 lead with 1:41 remaining in the half.Fifty seconds later the Rams drew even once again on Brown’s 41-yard scoring strike to Tino Fernandez 10 yards clear of the Gloucester secondary. The two-point rush leaving the teams tied at the half, 12-12.For the Rams, Justin Avery had 14 carries for 54 yards, and Brad Scuzzarella ran for 54 yards on 14 carries, and caught two passes for 25 yards.”The hope now is that with the playoff system the way it is, Gloucester wins the rest of its games, and we win the rest of ours,” Phelps said.Classical helps christen another rehabbed field Thursday (7) at Marblehead.