PEABODY — The Peabody football team celebrated Senior Night on Friday evening and did so in spectacular fashion with a 35-8 win over the Gloucester Fishermen at Coley Lee Field.
Rafael Casiano, Jordan Thompkins, William Plourde, Michael Perez, Derek Patturelli, Daviel Canela, Joe Raymond, James Bettencourt, Zachary Brooks, Dylan Pereira, Odin Machado, Christopher Mirabello, Logan Titus, Michael Ward, Dylan Seaver, Joseph Cimino, Brendan Smith, Peter Gardikas, and Jovante Dailey were all honored in what will be their last season at Peabody High.
“This was an important day for our students and our parents and for our fans in Peabody,” said head coach Mark Bettencourt.
Dailey didn’t wait long to make an impact, catching a 9-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Shea Lynch to give Peabody a 7-0 lead with just under nine minutes left in the half, capping off a successful opening drive for the Tanners.
Bettencourt said that his side was due for a game where they got off to a good start.
“We were able to do that both offensively and defensively,” he said. “I’m proud of the way we followed the game plan. We had a couple of breakdowns but we were able to rally.”
The Fishermen got off to a good start in the air as Nicholas Carey completed 66 percent of his passes on the opening drive for Gloucester, but it was stalled by the Peabody defense and turned over the ball on downs with four minutes left in the first quarter.
It didn’t take the Fishermen long to regain possession, as Aidan Cornetta picked off Lynch three plays later. Once again Gloucester’s offense was unable to get anything going, as it punted the ball to the Tanners with under a minute left in the opening quarter.
Cornetta was a bright spot on both sides of the ball, scoring the only touchdown for the Fishermen on the night and tallying 26 yards on the ground.
Peabody didn’t turn the ball over on its next possession. The Tanners drove 52 yards down the field in about eight minutes, with Derek Patturelli punching it in from a yard out to give the Tanners a 14-0 lead with under nine minutes left in the second quarter. Peabody got the ball right back as sophomore Eli Batista picked off Carey, and on the next play Lynch threw a 27-yard touchdown to junior Danny Barrett to give the Tanners a three touchdown lead with 8:25 left in the first half.
After stopping Gloucester and gaining possession on its own 12-yard line, Peabody junior Yoskar Batista broke off an 82-yard run on the first play of the drive to give the Tanners a 28-0 lead with four minutes left in the second quarter. Eli Batista continued to be a problem on defense as he picked off Carey two more times on Friday night.
Jordan Tompkins scored moments later to give Peabody a 35-0 lead entering halftime. Gloucester was driving to start off the 3rd quarter but was unable to find the end zone and turned the ball over on downs.
The Tanners spent most of the second half running the ball with an enormous lead. Yoskar Batista led the way with over 80 yards rushing on Friday night. Despite only finding the end zone once, Gloucester had a successful night on the ground rushing for over 100 yards.
Fishermen head coach Dan O’Connor said after the game that he was pleased with the performance he got from his group of running backs and the offensive line.
The goal is simple for Bettencourt and the Tanners moving forward; he said that he wants to bring home a title, something Peabody hasn’t done in more than 20 years.
Peabody is now 3-4 and heads to Salem to play the Witches on Friday (7).
