NORTH READING — Vince Lombardi once declared that football is a game of inches.
Such was most definitely the case in the North Reading Hornets’ 21-19 Thanksgiving Day win over visiting Lynnfield when the difference between winning and losing came down to a couple of inches.
Trailing 19-14 late in the fourth quarter, North Reading was in the driver’s seat after driving 82 yards in a clock-eating 13-play drive, the final a 29-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brian Heffernen to Jack Keller that made it 21-19 with just over a minute to play.
Lynnfield senior quarterback Clay Marengi (19-of-31, 330 yards, two touchdowns) and senior wide receiver John Lee (nine catches, 199 yards, two touchdowns), however, weren’t ready to throw in the towel.
With two game-winning, come-from-behind drives already under his belt, Marengi was looking for a trifecta. Calm, cool and collected, Marengi drove the Pioneers 43 yards to the Hornet 18-yard line and faced a third down with 5.5 seconds left.
The Pioneers trotted their field goal unit onto the field to attempt a 35-yard field goal into a stiff left-to-right wind. But the kick just missed the mark, glancing off the inside of the left upright and falling just short.
“I had full confidence in our kicking game, absolutely,” said Lynnfield coach Pat Lamusta. “He (Blake Peters) got a good leg on it, it just didn’t come back. I told him not to let that play bug him because we had chances to pull ahead at other points.”
North Reading needed less than two minutes to take a quick 7-0 lead on a 3-yard run by Keller.
Lynnfield capped a 12-play, 63-yard drive with a 1-yard rush up the middle by DJ Capachietti, tying the game at 7-7 following Peter’s extra point with 8:58 left in the half.
The Hornets answered right back on a Keller 1-yard run and Robert Tammaro’s extra point that made it 14-7 going into halftime.
The Hornets were on the verge of breaking the game open on their first possession of the second half with a first-and-goal at the Lynnfield 4. The Pioneers held, and the ensuing punt was blocked.
The play swung the momentum to the Pioneers. Marengi needed just 15 seconds to find Lee from 77 yards out. Lee caught the ball in traffic, but wiggled out of it and simply outran everybody into the end zone to make it a 14-13 game.
“That blocked punt was huge,” said Lamusta. “I couldn’t really tell, but it looked like it was Liam (Farrell) and maybe Joseph Contardo. There was a crowd in there, and John Lee, that’s the traffic man, he’s always good for a few of those.”
Lynnfield’s defense kept it a one-point game, forcing back-to-back turnovers on downs on the Hornets’ next two drives.
With 7:30 to play, Marengi hit Lee for a 17-yard touchdown pass to give Lynnfield a 19-14 lead (conversion failed). Keller hauled in the game-winner with 1:07 remaining.
“The defense gave us some awesome stops,” said Lamusta. “They battled through some very tough third and fourth-down situations. I’m very proud of our defense especially we had to move some kids around. Kids like Jac Contardo and Khad Connell moved around and really stepped up
“I also thought Clay did a pretty good job in managing the game and giving us the chance to win the game.”
Bakari Mitchell (4 catches, 52 yards) and Peters (4 catches, 41 yards) had several key receptions to keep Pioneer drives alive.
The Pioneers finish the season 8-3.
