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Knights roll in league opener

Friday, October, 21 By Jeff Hamrick

NORTH ANDOVER — The Scarlet Knights found the first six points difficult to come by last night. The following 36, however, came much easier.

Quarterback Brandon Walsh had a nearly perfect first half and the Knights came within 1:54 of posting their third consecutive shutout as North Andover routed Lynn Classical 42-6 in the Cape Ann/Northeastern League Division 1 opener for both teams.

While the game’s opening proved tough, it also let the visiting Rams know the Knights, who are 18th ranked in Eastern Mass., are as good as advertised.

It began with a holding penalty on the kickoff, setting up the Scarlet Knights at their own 10. A bad snap, a fumble and another holding penalty accounted for 28 negative yards. A pass and a run  lost another 9 yards. But North Andover (6-1) converted on third-downs of 26 and 3 yards and also was successful on a pair of fourth-down plays, including a 13-yard scoring pass from Walsh to Brandon Lash on fourth-and-8.

“That wasn’t the script,” North Andover coach John Rafferty said. “That’s one way to eat up the time of possession in the quarter, but not doing it that way. Not with numerous penalties and gaffes. It’s not being very efficient.”

North Andover quickly found a more efficient gear as Walsh threw touchdown passes to Tom Moody and Dan Laorenza and added a scoring run while John Iannone scored the first of his two TDs in a 28-point second quarter.

Walsh burned Lynn Classical (3-3) in the first half. The senior completed his first seven attempts and went into intermission 16 of 17 for 227 yards, completing passes to five different receivers.

“Other than that first drive, probably not,” Walsh said when asked if he’d had a better 22 minutes. “But I owe it to the offensive line for giving me that time. And the receivers, too, for making those big catches.”

North Andover limited Classical to two first downs and 53 yards of offense until a long scoring drive that ended with 1:54 left in the game. The Knights have allowed 19 points in their past five games.

“We just came out strong and did our best to stop the run,” senior tackle John Miller said. “And we were successful in doing that. We practice hard and we just go out there thinking we’re going to stop everything that comes to us.”