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Haverhill finished second at a tough Ashland tournament, scoring 153 1/2 points, which was just two short of a strong Coventry team. In third and fourth were highly regarded Essex and Springfield Central.

Adrian Polanco pinned two returning sectional place winners to pace North Andover to a rout of Marlboro and a tie with Ashland. Ryan McDonald also had a great match for the Knights (12-6-1).

Matt Marcotte was 4-0 at 132 poundsand Pat Meagher was 3-1 at 152 but Andover won only once in a dual-meet tournament. The Warriors lost a 36-33 decision to St. John's Shrewsburt that would have given them a split on the day had they won.

Pentucket freshman Nick Murphy finished fifth in the Frosh-Soph Auerbach meet Saturday, recording a school record time of 10:27 in the process.

ASHLAND — Talk about adding insult to injury.

On the game's first possession last night, Ashland owned the ball for all but two plays of the first quarter. With a first down at the Whittier Tech 3-yard line, the Clockers pushed to the 1 but were stuffed and stopped on downs. On top of that, the Wildcats then drove the length of the field for their second 90-plus yard scoring drive in as many weeks. Kicking off a 30-point second quarter explosion with the march, Whittier prevailed in the non-league tilt, 30-6.

From scouting and four innings of first-hand knowledge, Ashland knew its best shot at victory over Central Catholic was to rattle the Raiders.

It took over half the Eastern Mass. Division 2 title game, but the undefeated Clockers finally broke through. After forcing the North champion Raiders into an uncharacteristic four errors, Ashland then delivered the clutch hits to make the mistakes hurt. The shut-down pitching of Gatorade state player of the year Nicole D'Argento was the final piece of the winning puzzle as the Clockers took a 5-0 decision before about 200 fans at Tripp Field.