English drive falls short, Bulldogs fall

LYNN – The Lynn English football team turned three quarters of lackluster play into a nail-biter in its 26-21 loss to Gloucester on Friday night at Manning Field.View photo galleryJunior running back Andrew Latassa provided the Fishermen with a 20-13 lead on the second play of the final period, capping off a drive that featured 14 plays and consumed over seven minutes of clock.”It was one of those games where I was chewing my finger nails until the final play,” reflected coach Tony Zerilli. “We had a couple of guys step into the backfield and play unexpected big roles for us. This was a strong road win for us.”After exchanging three and outs, the Bulldogs offense turned to its senior quarterback, Lucas Harris (14 of 23, 258 yards), in crunch time.Consecutive completions of 31 and 30 yards to sophomore Hugh Calice and junior Daekwon Sheppard preceded a pair of keepers for a combined 17 yards.From there, Stevie Collins got the call on two straight touches, the latter resulting in a four yard score. The senior running back followed with a successful two-point conversion run, giving the hosts a one-point lead.Seemingly unfazed, Gloucester regained the lead just 2:53 later with junior back, Patrick Goss ripping off consecutive runs of 21 and 27 yards, the latter to pay dirt.”We were nicked up but made up for it between Patrick, Andrew and Christian Sanfilippo (19 yards on 5 carries),” said Zerilli of the Fishermen’s running depth.English would stage one last drive, spanning the final 89 seconds.Harris completed 5 of 8 passes for 64 yards, the latter to senior Miguel Martinez who stepped out of bounds at the 12-yard line just as the clock expired to end the game.”That was one hell of an effort from English in the final minutes,” lauded Zerilli. “I have to give them a lot of credit for marching back down the field like they did.”The teams exchanged scores in the opening 11 minutes; with the Bulldogs breaking the ice at 7:50 on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Sheppard in the right corner.On the ensuing drive, a five-yard touchdown run from senior John Salvi-Souza followed by a failed conversion rush from junior Alex Enes (19 rushes, 110 yards) made it 7-6.Salvi-Souza (12 rushes, 75 yards) added a two-yard score 4:17 into an otherwise bland second quarter that saw Gloucester control the ball for over eight minutes.”We try to hold onto the ball as much as possible, just like any other team,” explained Zerilli. “I thought we accomplished that for most of the game before things got away from us a bit in the fourth quarter.”Quarterback Mike Cody hit fellow junior John Philpott for a successful two-point conversion, allowing the Fishermen to enter the break up 14-7.Despite being on offense for just over a minute, the hosts scored the only points of the third period, a 72-yard strike from Harris to senior Anthony DeLaCruz (4 catches, 106 yards) who shook off a defender draped over his right shoulder before breaking free.