SAUGUS — The English High football team played as perfect a first half of football as possible Saturday at Stackpole Field, and the result showed.
The Bulldogs, who upped their record to 4-0 and joined three other Lynn teams in the ranks of the unbeaten after four weeks, assaulted the Sachems with 30 points in the first two quarters en route to a 46-22 rout.
“We got off to a good start,” said coach Chris Carroll. “We had a good first drive, and we came out ready to play.”
On that first drive, everything clicked for the Bulldogs. Starting on their own 32, English went 11 plays of largely ball-control offense. However, quarterback Matt Severance did connect on three passes before finding Prince Brown in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown, and English was off and running.
Severance continued his hot start to the season, going 10-for 13 for 136 yards.
When English’s defense got on the field, the Bulldogs were just as surgical as the offense was. The held Saugus to a three-and-out, one of several in the first half.
I liked the way our defense played,” Carroll said. “But you have play like that. As we saw, Saugus has some talent, and they didn’t give up.”
For his part, Anthony Nalen pinpointed the problem his 0-4 Sachems had.
“We’re young,” he said, “we play a lot of sophomores. And sometimes, you know, they have a tough time getting started. I’d say if we had to improve, starting games off better would be a good start.”
It took Saugus almost a half to get going. Meanwhile, English scored seemingly at will. Ski Gaston’s 19-run — one of two TDs he had — made it 14-0. Saugus upped that lead to 22-0 early in the second quarter when Brown caught his second scoring pass of the day from Severance and it was 22-7.
Saugus’ Christian Correia made an extremely athletic play midway through the quarter, batting one of Severance’s passes up in the air, catching it, and running all the way to the English 15. It only took quarterback Mike Mabee one play to convert, running the ball in and Saugus, with the PAT from Ricard Martinez-Moretta, was on the board.
But before the half ended, English was back, and Ishmile Bangura ran it in from the 5-yard line to give the Bulldogs a 30-7 edge.
The weather, already dank and raw to begin with, started to deteriorate in the second half, and the play reflected that.
“Unbelievable,” said Carroll. “It’s been following us around all year.”
Mabee and James Moise got Saugus on the board with 2:03 left in the third quarter after controlling the ball for virtually the entire period. It was a 15-yard pass play.
However, English put together a long drive of its own starting on its own 45 and taking 10 plays to reach the end zone, this one on a 23-yard pass from Severance to Tayshawn Anderson.
Each team scored one more time, English on a 1-yard plunge by Gaston and Saugus on a 34-yard bomb from Mabee to Moise.
English has another test Saturday at 4-0 Swampscott (2:30) while Saugus hosts Gloucester at 3.
