Peabody christens field with romp over English

PEABODY ? Now this is how you throw a party.Behind five touchdowns and 279 rushing yards from Doug Santos, the Peabody High football team christened its new turf field with a 43-7 rout of Lynn English, Friday night, at Lee Field.In their pre-game ceremonies, the Tanners honored players from their two Super Bowl champions (1990 and 1993), their state champion team in 1969 and one player from the state champion squad in 1944, then went out and thumped the Bulldogs.?It’s a new beginning for Peabody football,” Tanners coach Mark Bettencourt said. “Those championship teams left their blood, sweat and tears on the old grass field. Now it’s time for us to make some memories on this new field.”The Tanners scored three times in the first six minutes of the game, on touchdown runs of 6, 84 and 33 yards by Santos. He later added touchdown runs of 23 and 20 yards before taking the fourth quarter off. Ryan Collins scored Peabody’s other touchdown on an 8-yard run.English’s only touchdown was on a 5-yard pass to Daekwon Shepard from Lucas Harris in the first quarter. The Bulldogs had some success moving the ball between the 20-yard lines at times, but couldn’t finish their drives.?We felt like we were going to come out in the second half and win the game,” English coach Peter Holey said. “But it always seemed like we were one play away from scoring.”Peabody took the opening kicked off and went 62 yards in six plays for the first score of the game, a 6-yard run off right guard by Santos. The Tanners held the Bulldogs after one first down on their first drive and Santos followed an English punt with an 84-yard scamper down the left sideline.The ensuing kickoff by Pat Tuohy was line drive that took a wild carom off the English’s upback in the center of the field, and was recovered by Frank Falco at the Peabody 45-yard line. One play later, Santos scored his third touchdown of the first quarter.?That was not a designed play,” said Bettencourt, of the kickoff. “(Tuohy) has been having a little trouble with his quad, and he just didn’t get any elevation on the ball. It’s not the way we planned it.”English answered with its touchdown, coming off a 10-play, 78-yard drive that featured a 26-yard pass from Harris to Stevie Collins and then a 25-yard pass from Harris to Brett Holey, before Harris hit Shepard in the end zone.Peabody got that one back before the half after Henry Hernandez intercepted a pass at the English 40 and Santos ran in from 23 yards to make the score 28-7.Santos added his fifth score with 15 seconds left in the third quarter, and Collins’ touchdown came with 4:19 left in the game.?Give Peabody credit,” Holey said. “They came out an beat us. They were more physical than we were.”