LYNN — The KIPP Academy football team picked up its first win of the season Saturday, and its first-ever Commonwealth Athletic Conference victory with a 28-6 victory over Chelsea at Manning Field.
KIPP scored the final three touchdowns of the game to break an early 6-6 tie.
Panther coach Jim Rabbitt said his team dominated in all areas of play Saturday against the Red Devils after reviewing its mistakes from previous games on film.
“We looked at film all week, and we saw that the teams we played didn’t really beat us, we kind of beat ourselves, and we were focused on coming out, playing our best today, and getting a win and we did that,”Rabbitt said.
KIPP scored first on a 25-yard run by Daniel Oluwasuyi to open the scoring, the conversion pass failed, but KIPP was up by six points.
Chelsea responded with its only touchdown of the day, making it 6-6 in the second quarter. The Panthers went into the break up 12-6 after Oluwasuyi stepped in front of a Red Devils pass, intercepted it and returned it 80 yards to the end zone, putting his team ahead.
Starting quarterback J’Ddon Vincent was sidelined for a few plays in the third quarter, but freshman Pierro Canales stepped right in for him and scored from five yards out, and then he ran the conversion try in as well, making it a 20-8 game in favor of the Panthers.
Canales returned to action later in the game and tossed a scoring strike to Taj White-King from 15 yards out, and Canales kept it for two points on the conversion to account for the final 28-6 score.
Daniel Oluwasuyi led the Panthers on the ground, rushing for 83 yards and a touchdown. Taj White-King picked off three Red Devil passes and caught a touchdown pass for the winners.
“We talked all week about coming out and having a good team effort against Chelsea, we did that, now we’re 1-2, and 1-1 in the CAC. We really came out and played our game Saturday, mentally smart football,” Rabbitt said. “We have to stay positive, football is about overcoming obstacles, and we felt we really beat ourselves in our first two games, we played our game Saturday.”
It will be a quick turnaround for the Panthers, as they host Nashoba Tech Thursday night (7) at Manning Field.
