English can’t solve North Andover

NORTH ANDOVER – Sooner or later, the breaks and bounces may very well favor the Lynn English football team.But that wasn’t the case on Friday evening. The Bulldogs came out strong to start both halves but fell apart in the latter before falling 42-23.”Our guys keep playing their hearts out and continue to fight,” said English coach Peter Holey, whose team dropped its fifth consecutive game. “Eventually something is going to break in our favor but until then we can only keep adjusting and continue to play hard.”The Bulldogs scored on two of their first four series including the first of the game, a nine-play, 62-yard drive. Daekwon Shepard picked carried three times for 46 yards before Kyle O’Conner scored on a nine-yard run to the right pylon.North Andover answered right back, getting a 52-yard touchdown pass from Casey Walsh to Joe Samuelman down the right sideline. After a three and out gave the host’s the ball back, English got a huge boost from Shepard after he intercepted Walsh at midfield.Four plays later, quarterback Lucas Harris, in his first game back after missing thee with an injury, hit Chris Lessard with a fantastic 45-yard pass while on the move. English recovered a squib kick on the ensuing play but couldn’t capitalize as Harris was picked off by Matt Iannone on the first play of the second quarter.”He was shaking off some rust, but Lucas played well tonight,” said Holey of his junior signal-caller. “He missed three weeks and it showed at times but he’s getting better and better and will hopefully turn things around against Cambridge next week and on Thanksgiving (Classical).”The momentum swing was glaring as the Knights reeled off 21 points to enter the half up 28-13. Tom Stabile ran one in from two yards out at 7:21 before Walsh connected for two touchdown passes of 41 and 8 yards to Robert Shkliew (3:29) and Daniel Waddell with just 17 seconds left.The Bulldogs forced a turnover to open the second half, recovering a Shkliew fumble before settling for a 23-yard field goal by Shepard. After forcing a three and out on the Knights ensuing drive, Shepard was on the receiving end of a 55-yard scoring pass from Harris that cut the deficit to five.English had a chance to take the lead on their next series but Harris was picked off by Shkliew leading to a 47-yard touchdown pass off of a trick play that saw Walsh hit Stabile on a screen pass before the running back found James Foote down the right side.2:39 later, the Knights expanded their lead to 19, where it would stay. Luke Hitchcock found pay dirt from eight-yards out to cap off the scoring.”We made some adjustments in the second half but just couldn’t keep up in the end,” said Holey. “We’re playing for our seniors at this point so hopefully we can figure things out the next two weeks and send them out on a winning note.’