PEABODY — Behind another solid defensive performance, the Peabody football team defeated Beverly, 20-9, on senior night at Coley Lee Field on Friday night. The Tanners needed a few new faces to step up in this game, as senior captain Eric DeMayo went down with an injury on the first series of the game. The burden fell on fellow senior captain Noah Freedman (46 rush yards, TD) and sophomore Angel Paulino (76 rush yards, TD) on the offensive end, while junior Chris Glass and sophomores Joe Casey and James Guiry picked up the slack on defense.
“Our offense certainly took a blow when we lost Eric early, but guys like Noah and Angel stepped up and helped lessen that blow,” said Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt. “On defense, guys like Joe and James had their numbers called and stepped up when they needed to.”
It was a defensive battle to start the game, with both teams exchanging three-and-outs for the entirety of the first quarter. The Tanners finally got something going as the quarter wound to a close, with senior Nolan Murphy returning a punt 45 yards all the way down to the six yard-line with eight seconds left. On the first play of the second quarter, Freedman punched in a four-yard touchdown to give Peabody a 7-0 lead.
The Tanners then forced a three-and-out and got the ball back at their own 25 yard-line. Peabody then kicked off a 10-play, 75-yard drive that was highlighted by a 40-yard pass from senior quarterback Jonell Espinal to senior tight end Sam Mastromatteo and culminated in a 10-yard touchdown run by Paulino.
Beverly was able to capture a little momentum before the half by blocking the extra point attempt, and Clark Marchand returned the loose ball 90 yards to give the Panthers two points.
In the second half, Peabody was able to extend the lead to 20-2 after Espinal scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 3:30 left in the third quarter. The Tanners defense then continued to shut down the Panthers, forcing two more three-and-outs in the third quarter.
“They certainly gave us some issues tonight, they have a great unit,” Beverly coach Andrew Morency said of the Peabody defense. “They’ve been running that 4-4 scheme for years and they really know how to do it, and they got us several time with some blitzes inside and things like that. They did a really good job of keeping us off balance.”
“I wish it had come together like this for us earlier in the season,” Bettencourt said of his team’s defensive performance. “We’ve won two games in a row now and we feel really good about where we are as a unit. Tonight helped prove that even more by seeing what we could do even when we lost a big contributor like Eric at middle linebacker.”
Beverly finally broke through in the final seconds of the third quarter. With 19 seconds remaining, quarterback Nick Berry hit Ryan Barror for a 51-yard touchdown pass to put the score at 20-9, but that was as close as the Panthers would get. Peabody would force two more three-and-outs and go on two long drives of its own to run out the clock for the win.
Now at 3-4, the Tanners need a laundry list of things to go right in order to qualify for the playoffs.
“We’ll see how it goes, but even if we don’t get in then our goal is to keep riding this two-game winning streak,” said Bettencourt. “We have an opportunity to potentially close out this season on a six-game winning streak, and we’d like to do that if possible.”
Peabody will find out on Sunday whether or not it will get into the tournament.
