LYNN — Lynn Tech’s potentially historic football season will continue past Thanksgiving.
The Tigers made sure of that Saturday when they demolished Franklin County Technical School, 41-6, in the first round of the Massachusetts Vocational Tournament.
The Tigers played Saturday’s game with no guarantees that there would be another. Two vocational teams — Blackstone Valley and Nashoba Tech — were in the MIAA tournament. If both teams won, Tech would have been automatically crowned vocational champion. If they both lost, they would have automatically been in the vocational finals, leaving Tech out in the cold.
As it turned out, Nashoba lost, but Blackstone won. As a result, Tech will play at Nashoba Nov. 30 at a time to be determined for the title.
The win also fulfilled one of coach James Runner’s goals, as it was the Tigers’ 10th of the season — a first for the school. If they win on Thanksgiving and defeat Nashoba, they will finish at 12-1.
“This is huge for the program,” said Runner. “I’m proud of all my players, especially the seniors.”
Tech had to rebound from its only loss of the season — a 20-6 defeat at the hands of Cathedral last week — and Runner purposely tried to keep practices light.
“We tried to have a little fun this week,” he said. “But we had a plan, and I’m proud of our players of keeping to the script.”
The script didn’t include passing the football. Quarterback David Barrios only threw the ball twice all afternoon — on successive plays. Meanwhile, Tech ran the Eagles ragged to the tune of 357 yards, 182 of them by Steffan Gravely, who is wrapping up his high school career in style. Gravely scored three touchdowns and electrified the home crowd with a 91-yard touchdown run as the clock marking the end of the first half struck zero.
But as impressed as he was with Gravely and the offense, Runner couldn’t say enough about his defense, especially Emerson Ramirez.
“He is the heart of our defense,” said Runner. “I really think he’s the best linebacker around. He had to have had 13 tackles today. He was everywhere.”
Tech, which won the toss and deferred to the second half, scored four plays into its first possession — and never stopped until the fourth quarter. Gravely scored the first of his three with a 4-yard run. He set it up with a 24-yard gainer two plays earlier.
Tech marched 64 yards on 11 plays on its next possession, with Barrios plunging in from the 1-yard line. The next time they had the ball, Barrios struck again, this time for a 42-yard touchdown run (he ended up with 60 yards on the ground for the day). Tech’s Jamie James made five PATs, but missed on this one to make it 20-0.
Gravely saved his best for the last play of the half. With most people expected Tech to just take a knee and go into the locker room, Gravely got through the Eagle line, and made two shifts at midfield to run into the end zone untouched to make it 27-0 at the half.
If there was anything about this game that could cause concern, it was Keoni Gaskin, who tweaked his hamstring after a 24-yard run in the first quarter. Runner expects him to be ready for Wednesday night’s game at Austin Prep.
In his absence, junior Chance Buono ran for 69 yards and a touchdown to go along with Barrios’ 60.
“It was good to see Chance running the way he did,” said Runner.
