REVERE — After three wins last season, the Lynn English football team improved to 4-1 with a 22-6 win against Revere at Harry Della Russo Stadium. Running back Xavier Beauchamp led the Bulldogs’ charge with 162 yards rushing.
The English offense wasn’t fully firing Thursday evening, but when in doubt, the Bulldogs relied on their junior running back, who rushed for 102 of his 162 yards in the second half.
“He’s one of the best backs in the state,” said first-year English coach Tyllor McDonald. “Beauchamp is small, shifty, and explosive. He’s the perfect back. He’s a real gritty and tough kid. When his number is called, he’s always answered.”
Beauchamp opened the scoring with a 12-yard rushing touchdown early in the second quarter. The Bulldogs went for two and gave it to Beauchamp again, who powered in the endzone to give English an 8-0 lead.
A bit of drama followed when the Bulldogs had Revere in a third-down scenario and a pass fell incomplete. But from there, the refs called a personal foul hit on a defenseless receiver.
Revere took the first down and immediately scored a 39-yard touchdown (Danny Hou to Yousef Benhamou). A failed two-point conversion saw the Bulldogs hold a two-point lead with 7:31 remaining in the first half.
It didn’t last long. On the ensuing kickoff, English’s Shane Knowlton-Simard fielded a kick from the 20-yard line and ran it back for an 83-yard touchdown.
“Special teams are very important. It’s a third of the game – all phases need to be on point,” McDonald said. “It was a big play for us… I try to preach to the guys that when they score, we could have tucked our tails in and lost, but we responded with the kick return.”
The Bulldogs took a 16-6 advantage into the locker room.
In the second half, they kept feeding their star running back, who led them to the red zone again. On fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line, English found some breathing room thanks to a Jaiden Rosario to Knowlton-Simard touchdown (22-6).
Revere coach Louis Cicatelli was positive about how his team played, despite its young age.
“We got a touchdown called back. We didn’t score when we were on the 1-yard line. They outplayed us, outhustled us, and out-tackled us,” Cicatelli said. “We are a very young team. We had six freshmen starting tonight and have, maybe, two seniors and the rest are sophomores. Hopefully, we continue to improve each week and I think defensively, this was our best game so far.”
McDonald said he was proud to be 4-1, but spoke about how his offense isn’t fully “clicking” through five weeks.
“Offensively, we were a little sloppier than usual. We couldn’t really get anything clicking, but overall, our guys played a physical game,” he said. “I knew this was going to be a scrappy, physical game. They did what they had to do and scored points when needed.”
English is back at Manning Field next Friday when it hosts Malden at 5 p.m. Revere aims to bounce back on the same evening when it welcomes Somerville at 6 p.m.
