LYNN — One of the recurring themes on which Lynn English football coach Chris Carroll harped all season long was finishing the job.
Maybe it was because he saw his team in so many positions to win last season, only to watch it lose because it couldn’t finish.
There were no worries this season — and certainly no worries Thursday at Manning Field. English finished. The Bulldogs put the period on one of its best seasons ever by walloping crosstown rival Classical, 38-0. Afterward, there was no mincing of words by Classical coach Brian Vaughan, who played on one of the only two other English teams in the school’s history to finish with 10 wins — the 1990 Division 3 Super Bowl team.
“It was an old-fashioned butt-whipping,” he said. “English is a very good team. they are well-coached, and they came out and laid the wood on us.”
“I’m so proud of these kids the way they have performed this season,” said English coach Chris Carroll. “Our kids are expected to do well, and they know what that means. They know it means they have to work hard. There is some great leadership among these kids.”
Never in Carroll’s wildest dreams did he expect this one-sided a game. Neither did many other people.
“Going into a game against a team as good as Classical was this season, you don’t think in those terms,” said Carroll. “But after the fact, I can say that we played our four best quarters of the year.”
As the score might indicate, the defense set the tone for this win. That was more than evident despite Ishmile Bangura’s 164 rushing yards and a touchdown, running back Ski Gaston’s two touchdowns, and quarterback Matt Severance’s two touchdown passes. The game turned on English’s defense.
After holding Classical to a three-and-out on its first possession, the Bulldogs went 63 yards in 14 plays, with Bangura running the last four for a touchdown that, with Mathias Fowler’s rush, put the Bulldogs up 8-0 with 2:23 to go in the first quarter.
With English still up by a touchdown, Classical got down to the English 15 early in the second quarter. But English’s defense stiffened, and on a fourth-and-14, Seth Lukindo picked off Keith Ridley in the end zone, giving English the ball back on its own 20 with the touchback.
Nine plays later, Severance hit Prince Brown with a 22-yard scoring pass and then rushed the ball in for the conversion to make the score 16-0.
“You get an opportunity to score against a team that plays defense like English, you have to score,” said Vaughan.
“That has to be deflating,” said Carroll about his defense stopping Classical deep in English territory.
“Our defense made plays that had to be made,” he added. “It was that way all year. It’s a testament to our ability to finish. We don’t want teams finishing against us.”
The score stood at 16-0 at the half, but it didn’t seem like the type of lead that English was going to give up. And sure enough, on the Bulldogs’ first possession of the second half, they went nine plays to score a touchdown and go up 22-0.
Severance, who ran for 25 yards in addition to throwing for 58, found Juan Avelino from 23 yards out for the touchdown. Gaston, who did most of the heavy lifting on the ground, got into the scoring column with a 2-yard rush, and Bangura’s conversion made the score 30-0 with four minutes to go in the third quarter.
English did not take its feet off the throttle, successfully executing an onside kick, but nothing came of the drive. However, the Bulldogs did score once more with 8:14 left in the game when Gaston scored touchdown No. 2, with Bangura’s conversion.
Classical’s Nashaun Butler caught six passes for 38 yards, and eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
“I don’t think too many people at Classical have done that,” said Vaughan. “It was a heck of an accomplishment.
“We had a great season,” said Vaughan, who finished his first season at Classical with an 8-3 record. “We set goals, and I’d say we probably reached 70 percent of them.
“But coming from 3-8 a year ago to 8-3, and so fast, this was a very good year. We’re only going to get better.”
