PEABODY — The Peabody Tanners fought valiantly against a powerhouse in the Everett Crimson Tide, falling 21-7 in a scrimmage at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Friday.
Going into the matchup with Everett, Tanners’ Head Coach Mark Bettencourt says scrimmages like this against tough opponents help indicate where his team is at.
“When you are playing a team with the caliber of Everett, you understand that you are going to be giving up some size, some speed, and that is why we play them because we want to see where our speed is at, we want to see where our strength is at,” said Bettencourt.
“That is why we play this team [Everett] — that is probably the best team we are going to play until the playoffs — if we make the playoffs,” he added.
When the final whistle sounded, Bettencourt was impressed with his team’s performance even in a losing effort especially compared to last year’s matchup with the Crimson Tide.
“To be honest, I was much more impressed this year than the way we finished the game last year — last year, they pretty much dominated us. This year I felt like they did not dominate us — we were more in the game,” said Bettencourt.
The matchup started as a tough day at the office for Peabody as they punted the ball on a drive that lasted under a minute. Everett responded immediately, punching in a rushing touchdown from around the three-yard line and banged in the extra point to make the game 7-0.
Everett actually would have put up six earlier in its drive if not for a block in the back flag that negated a 30-yard touchdown pass.
The struggles on offense continued for Peabody for the remainder of the first quarter, and the Crimson Tide took advantage. After forcing the Tanners to punt, Everett scored again, this time on a beautifully blocked wide receiver screen that was taken for a 64-yard touchdown.
Everett continued to pile it on in the first half; after getting an interception, the Crimson Tide connected on a long 49-yard bomb of a touchdown pass and, with the extra point, took a 21-0 lead.
With their backs against the wall facing a 21-point deficit, the Tanners responded. Peabody’s defense forced a punt, and senior captain, quarterback Shea Lynch connected with junior wideout Eli Batista for a 49-yard touchdown making the game 21-7 going into halftime.
In the second half, the scoring stalled on both sides, with some second-string players getting action. Although the backups entered the game, the intensity did not change as the Tanners were stout on defense.
On both sides, the second half was a defensive clinic — the running lanes were small, and the hits were ferocious, so much so that there was not another point scored, and Everett took the victory 21-7.
Bettencourt spoke highly of his team’s performance in the second half as each side of the ball was filled with kids making their case to play on Friday nights.
“I told this to them before we even played the game — if you are playing in the second half, show us why you should have played in the first half because that is going to translate to our season where if you want to play on Friday nights you have to impress us on Saturdays in the JV game,” said Bettencourt.
“We want that point to be made, and today it was made — you saw some kids in that second half that looked pretty good that when we watch the film, we are going to say this week we might move them up and give them a shot with the ones,” he continued.
One of the standouts for the Tanners in the second half was sophomore Kyle Marron who was in the right spot making multiple big tackles.
“He [Marron] looked like he was in the right place, he was shooting the right gaps, and he was securing tackles — which is ultimately what we are looking for,” said Bettencourt.
As its regular season opener at home against Revere on Friday, Sept. 9 approaches, the Tanners will take a week-by-week approach to adjust and correct in hopes of making the playoffs later this season.
Michael Coughlin Jr. can be reached at [email protected].
