WESTFORD — When a team wins a championship, it’s only fitting that its best players finish the job and bring home the crown.
That was the theme of the Lynn Tech football team’s 50-22 win over Nashoba Valley in the Massachusetts Vocational Athletic Directors Association championship game in Westford on Thursday night.
All season long the Tigers were carried by their ground and pound attack on offense led by senior running backs Steffan Gravely and Keoni Gaskin. Thus, it was only right that Gravely and Gaskin carried the Tigers to the vocational crown.
“Steffan and Keoni embody hard work, a great work ethic and consistency,” Tech coach James Runner said. “Those are some of the things we’ve preached all season long. Making sure we get ourselves in the weight room, making sure we build up as a football team and making sure we execute our game plans on the field.
“These two are two of the most special players that we’ve had in our program since Kennedy Gomes and Pedro Martinez,” Runner said. “To have these two in the same conversation says a lot about them.”
Gravely, the program’s all-time leading rusher, finished Thursday’s win with 216 rushing yards on 23 carries and four touchdowns. He ended his high school football career fourth on the Massachusetts all-time list of rushing yardage with 5,903 yards.
“It means everything to me,” Gravely said of Thursday’s win. “This is what we seniors have been working towards for four years. It feels good.”
His four-touchdown performance, which gave him 35 scores for the season, made the night even more memorable. Gravely noted that he couldn’t have asked for a better way to cement his Tech career.
“It definitely makes the night a little more special,” Gravely said. “I wasn’t counting how many touchdowns I scored, but now that I know it definitely means everything to me. We had to come out victorious today.
“I’m never going to forget tonight,” Gravely added. “This is something that’ll always be engraved in my mind.”
Gaskin finished his night with 100 rushing yards on eight carries with three touchdowns. He scored twice on the ground and added a 75-yard interception return for his third touchdown of the contest.
The big defensive play came after Tech saw a 30-0 lead shrink to 30-22 in the third quarter. Runner highlighted the interception as the turning point in the win.
“I knew it was third-and-long and I knew Nashoba Valley was looking for the seam ball,” Gaskin said. “I dropped back to the hook and curl zone, saw the ball go up and took the interception. I heard my free safety, David Barrios, say ‘go, go, go.’ I had to keep on pushing and it paid off.”
Much like Gravely, the championship ending to his high school football career provides an unforgettable memory for Gaskin. Tech underwent up and down seasons during Gaskins’ first three years on the team but he never wavered on his commitment to the Tigers’ goals.
“It feels great,” Gaskin said. “Hard work and dedication, it all paid off. Our senior class has had big goals since we came to Tech. We wanted to turn this program around. Our hard work and dedication paid off and this feels great.”
