Pregame dinner unites Peabody, Saugus football squads

Sports, Saugus-peabodyBy Steve KrauseItem StaffSAUGUS ? Former New England Patriots lineman Max Lane never played a Thanksgiving Day game in high school, so you can excuse him if he was a little bewildered by the ethic of a pregame dinner where the two opposing teams make nice with each other.?I don?t know what I expected,” said Lane, who protected Drew Bledsoe?s blind side during his time with the Patriots ? a stint that included the 1997 Super Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers.?I thought this was going to be a roast,” he joked at the pregame Saugus-Peabody dinner at Prince Restaurant Wednesday night. “I thought I was going to see the captains get up there and talk trash.”Kidding aside, Lane told the full-house crowd that he has played at all three levels ? high school, college and professional ? and the games he remembers most were the ones he played in his youth. He told the crowd of Peabody and Saugus seniors, their coaches, members of the Saugus Lions Club and representatives from the Peabody YMCA (which sponsor the dinner) that he has a little taste of what the holiday is like now because he has a son who plays for Georgetown High.If Lane wasn?t aware of the unique camaraderie that exists between Thanksgiving Day combatants, Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt very succinctly filled him in.?You?re going to play this game,” he said to his players and those from Saugus, “and after that you?re going to go to college. At some point, you?ll meet each other and for a couple of minutes you?ll be eying one another ? and then you?ll find you have so much in common.”Saugus coach Mike Broderick took it a step further.?Everybody in the stands, especially the ones who have played in this game, they?re going to want to be you,” he said. “You?ll see it when the game ends. They?re all going to be down on that field. They all want a piece of this.?I talk to people who played football, and they tell me how much they miss this,” he said.Both Peabody and Saugus had seasons that reflected the hard work their players ? especially the seniors ? put in.?This senior class,” said Bettencourt, “were on an 0-10 team when they were sophomores. So to see them come as far as they did (the Tanners are 7-3 heading into Thanksgiving), it makes me proud to be an alumnus of Peabody High.”Bettencourt recalled his senior year, when his Tanners rolled into Thanksgiving with a 9-0 record and Saugus was 8-1.?If either one of us won,” he said, “we?d have a chance to go to the Super Bowl.”His team won ? and Peabody also won the Super Bowl.Broderick was equally proud of his team, which is 6-4 heading into next Thursday?s game at Peabody?s Coley Lee Field (10 a.m.).?Our season is a reflection of all the work our kids put in during the off-season ? the weight-lifting, the weekends they spent ? it?s been very rewarding.”The night also included the presentation of the Saugus Heisman Trophy, which is presented to a Saugus senior by the Lions Club. This year?s winner was Dan Cacciola, who opened the season by rushing for more than 360 yards against Winthrop.?None of this would be possible without my teammates,” said Cacciola. “So I thank them.”