TYNGSBOROUGH — The Lynn Tech football team just couldn’t get anything positive going in Saturday’s matchup against Greater Lowell Tech. The Tigers botched a kickoff, gave up a safety and turned the ball over three times, two of which led to Gryphons touchdowns, on their way to a 34-8 loss.
“Greater Lowell is not a better football team than Lynn Tech,” Tech coach James Runner said. “We shot ourselves in the foot today. We had almost 17 missed tackles, blown assignments on the offensive line. I don’t make excuses for anything and I’m not going to start now.
“They got the best half of the football in the first half,” Runner added. “Overall I thought we gave the game to Greater Lowell.”
The Tigers trailed 28-0 after gaining less than 20 total yards on offense in the first half.
“Last week Northeast took advantage of an opportunity against us by attacking our inside, Greater Lowell watched the film and they did the same thing,” Runner said. “We were trying to make some plays on the outside with our running backs, but they were taking counter steps inside versus going on the outside. Greater Lowell took advantage of that.
“I do want to take my hat off to both my coordinators Jason McCuish and Alan Bercy,” Runner added. “Regardless of the score or outcome of the game they never stop coaching.”
After receiving the opening kickoff, the Gryphons made quick work of the Tigers defense. Greater Lowell found the endzone on a 4-yard run by wide receiver Dylan Bishop to go ahead 6-0.
That’s when things started to go wrong for Tech. The ensuing kickoff was a short, high kick that took a Greater Lowell bounce, allowing the Gryphons to recover at the Tech 35. Quarterback Jeremy Gray then found Bishop wide open for a 35-yard touchdown pass to extend the Greater Lowell lead to 13-0.
A few drives later, the Tigers defense made a huge defensive stop on 4th-and-goal at the 1. However, two plays later, quarterback David Barrios was sacked for a safety to put Greater Lowell ahead 15-0.
With just a few minutes to play in the first half Greater Lowell put together another scoring drive. Gray found running back Benji Hach on an option play, who scored on the 5-yard run to put the Gryphons ahead 21-0.
Just when it looked like things couldn’t get worse, the Tigers decided to run one last play before the half. But the Gryphons’ defense was ready forcing a fumble that defensive back Devell Smith returned 27 yards to give Greater Lowell a 28-0 lead at the half.
The Tigers started the second half with a seven-minute drive to the Greater Lowell 1. However, Tech still couldn’t find the endzone on the long drive after failing to convert on 4th-and-goal.
Late in the fourth quarter Tech finally got on the board as Barrios found Haidar Bdaiwi on a 11-yard touchdown to cut the Greater Lowell lead to 28-8 after a two-point catch by Bdaiwi.
Greater Lowell shutdown Tech’s final drive with an interception touchdown on the last play of the game to seal a 34-8 victory.
“They have a good opportunity in front of them right now,” Runner said of Greater Lowell. “We are going to have to depend on Nashoba Valley to do its job when they play them next week. If they do so they will make it a three way tie in our conference and still put us in a position to win the conference.”
The Tigers (3-2) will travel to Georgetown Friday night (7).
“We know everybody right now is looking at us and we are suppose to be a lot better than we are playing,” Runner said. “We also play teams that are higher in division, but I’m not making any excuses. We should have played a lot better than we did today.”
