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GEORGETOWN – Manchester Essex’s defense looked mighty suspect on the first play from scrimmage but was impenetrable after that.

The Hornets held Georgetown to just seven points in a 28-7 Thanksgiving Day victory.

NORTH READING — North Reading head football coach Jeff Wall called yesterday’s Northeastern Conference/Cape Ann League Division 4 matchup with Manchester Essex a grind. Fortunately for Wall’s squad, they were right in their element as they controlled the clock on offense and controlled the line of scrimmage on defense en route to a 14-0 win on homecoming. The win, North Reading’s fourth straight, moves them to 5-2 on the season. It has been quite a turnaround from 1-9 seasons in 2009 and 2010. “This game was a grind,” Wall said after his club’s second shutout of the gall. “(Manchester Essex) is a scary team, they’re tough and they’re big, but we executed and made plays on defense when we needed to make them. We bent a little bit but we didn’t break.” Manchester Essex (3-5) had it’s chances twice driving into North Reading territory late in the first half and late in the fourth quarter. North Reading, however, stopped the visitors on downs in the first half and came away with an interception late in the fourth. The Hornets were led by bruising running back Carl Lipani, who ran for 179 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries. Lipani, who also added a fourth quarter interception, now has 1,225 yards and 15 TDs this season. The junior wore down Manchester Essex, picking up several key third-down conversions. On the game North Reading converted eight of 11 third-down opportunities, which may have been the difference. The biggest came on North Reading’s first drive of the game when CJ McCarthy took an inside handoff 50 yards on third down and 10 for a touchdown and a 7-0 North Reading lead. North Reading can clinch its third winning season in the last dozen years with a win next Saturday at Hamilton-Wenham.

GLOUCESTER— Andover coach E.J. Perry said the game plan was to take it to Gloucester physically.

As it turned out Perry’s squad executed the game plan to perfection as a power running game led by senior captain Andy Coke’s 198 yards and dominating play from the offensive line resulted in a 33-16 win at Newell Stadium.

HAVERHILL — The game could not have started any better for Whittier, scoring a touchdown just 50 seconds into play.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats found little offense after that, falling to Manchester Essex 15-6 yesterday afternoon.

ANDOVER — Despite the presence of one of the state’s most prolific running backs, the Greater Lawrence defense is what has the Reggies excited.

One week after shutting out South Boston, Greater Lawrence stifled another opponent yesterday afternoon with a convincing 18-6 victory over visiting Manchester Essex in the Commonwealth Conference Large opener for both schools.

ANDOVER — The start was perfect for Andover. But then the trouble started.

Pat Farnham took the game’s opened kickoff and ran it back 95 yards for a touchdown, but Gloucester responded by scoring on four of its next five possessions and went on to down the Golden Warriors 38-13 last night in a game played on Thursday due to the Yom Kippur holiday.

GEORGETOWN — Eleven plays (10 on the ground by four different players), 60 yards, 6:45 off the clock. Those were the impressive numbers from Manchester Essex’s game-winning drive yesterday morning at Georgetown High School.

MANCHESTER — Whittier coach Kevin Bradley’s plan against Manchester Essex was simple.

Hold onto the ball.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands,” Bradley said. “Everybody likes to talk about our passing game but we can run it too, I have a lot of confidence in the run game and it worked well today. We played smashmouth football on both sides of the ball.”

 PEABODY — Greater Lawrence failed to hold on to a 13-0 halftime lead ,and a 20-13 lead with just two minutes to play, and fell to Manchester Essex 26-20 in overtime.

Trailing 13-7, Manchester tied the score at 13 when quarterback Alex Carr hit Brian Ciccone for a 76-yard score. Greater Lawrence, however, took the lead on the ensuing kickoff when Anthony Ocasio went 76 yards for the TD.

GLOUCESTER — Following the game, Andover coach John Rex shrugged and summed up his team’s performance.

“We need to tackle,” he said. “We need to get back to tackling.”

FOXBOROUGH— In the Division 4 Super Bowl against Tri-County, the Manchester Essex football team did what the New England Patriots couldn't do in Super Bowl XXXXII vs. the New York Giants last February.

FOXBOROUGH — The Gloucester football team had their bid for a second straight Division 2A Super Bowl derailed by Duxbury this afternoon. After a back and forth three quarters the Dragons took over the game in the fourth en route to a 46-26 win at Gillette Stadium.

Playoff-bound Hornets can knock Georgetown out of postseason by winning. A Royals victory could create a three-team tie for top of the CAL Small.

For the third straight year, pregame Georgetown-Manchester Essex talk centers around the QBs: Royals senior Joe Esposito and Hornets standout Pat Orlando.

This time around, though, the matchup won’t decide the Commonwealth Small title. Manchester, 10-0, already has that sewn up, while 8-1 Georgetown has moved on to the Cape Ann League.

Brian Miller, Andover: The sophomore basketball standout continues to grow as a receiver. Against Methuen, the 6-foot, 170-pounder made two catches for 45 yards and a 25-yard touchdown from John Hennessy (200 passing yards).