WORCESTER – There was plenty of maroon and gray in the stands at Commerce Bank Field at Foley Stadium Saturday as the East Lynn Pop Warner ‘B’ and ‘D’ teams were looking to end their year’s with New England championships.It ended up as a split decision for the Bulldogs as the ‘B’ team completed a 13-2 season, ripping of 16 unanswered second-half points to get past Canton, 24-8.The ‘D’ squad ran into a talented North Attleboro team, falling 24-0.For the ‘B’ squad, it was a great bounce back after losing a heartbreaker to Dorchester with a trip to the Pop Warner Super Bowl in Florida on the line.”The thing I love about this team is that every week it’s been somebody different coming through for us,” B team coach Duke Wilson said. “Canton was a very good team but our defense played great. Coach (Spiro) Lambaris had them ready to go.”East Lynn (13-2) got out of the gates quick against Canton as quarterback Matt Severance hitDarlin Guzman for an 80 yard touchdown on a fourth-and-12 play to give the Bulldogs an 8-0 lead after the first of Nashon Butler’s three two-point conversion kicks.”It was funny. Darlin had a couple of drops against Dorchester and people kept asking why are we still throwing him the ball,” Wilson said. “But I told them that he would make a play for us when we needed it. And Darwin did that on Saturday.”It stayed 8-0 through the rest of the first half before Canton came out and marched to a tying touchdown to start the third quarter. The rest of the game, however, belonged to the Bulldogs.East Lynn took the lead for good early in the fourth quarter when Severance hit Butler for a 25-yard touchdown to make it 16-8 after the conversion kick. The Bulldog defense then set up the clinching score when Noah Santerre recovered a Canton fumble as they were driving towards a potential score.Claudious Williams paid off the stand with a 35 yard touchdown run that along with Butler’s conversion kick closed out the scoring.”I thought that we played a really good game,” Wilson said.The D squad (10-4) also put up a strong showing but came up against a North Attleboro team that had a little more experience on its side.”North Attleboro was a good team,” D squad coach Pete Dow said. “I think the atmosphere was a little overwhelming for our kids and it took us a little too long to get going.”North Attleboro came out fast and scored twice in the early going to open up a lead that the East Lynners were never able to overcome. The Bulldogs did get solid games from Marquis Avery and David Brown but couldn’t rally from the sluggish start.”All these kids came to practice every day and even at the end, they didn’t want it to end,” Dow said. “We are a young team but the kids did really well all year.”
