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Finnerans, fast start boost Central

ANDOVER — It was a great day for the Finneran family Saturday afternoon.

Which means it was an even better day for the Central Catholic football team, which rolled over Merrimack Valley Conference rival Andover, 41-10, improving to 3-1 on the season.

Playing in his first game of the season after recovering from a back injury, and against his hometown team, senior Connor Finneran caught three passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns, of 34 and 30 yards, both of which were special.

The first TD came on a 34-yard pass from sophomore standout Ayden Pereira to open the scoring in the first quarter and open the floodgates to a 21-point Raider outbreak and the second came on a 30-yard halfback pass from twin brother Michael Finneran,

"We only practiced that play once but the coach (Chuck Adamopoulos) said to be ready for it," said Connor. "I knew he'd get it up for me to get it.

"This was a fun game and it was great to come back in my first game against Andover."

Michael was confident that his brother would get it to him, saying "I just tried to lay it up for him to make a play because I knew he would get it."

That wasn't the only big play by Michael, however. With Central leading 21-3 in the second quarter, he picked i off an Andover pass and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown and the first pick-six of his career.

"Probably the interception return," said Michael when asked which play excited him the most. "We wanted to put them away early and that helped."

The interception was the second of the half for the Raiders and the other was just as lethal for Andover. On Andover's first possession, Maek Ciccarelli picked off a Victor Harrington pass and returned it 32 yards to the Andover 5-yard line. Two plays later, Michael Brown ran it in from five yards to give Central the quick 14-0 lead.

"I thought we played hard but those two interceptions just killed us," said Andover coach EJ Perry.

Ahead 28-3 at the half, the Raiders all but put the game away on their second possession of the first half when Pereira connected with a beautiful, mostly wide open Nick Donatio on a 56-yard scoring strike to make it 35-3.

Pereira finished another productive game by completing 16 of 22 passes for 246 yards for two touchdowns while rushing for 71 yards on 11 carries.

"He's a playmaker and does a lot for us," said Adamopoulos. "And he's very coachable. He'll make mistakes but he learns from them."

With a running clock in the fourth quarter and plenty of reserves in the game, both teams scored once. The Warriors (2-3) scored on a 51-yard pass from Harrington to freshman Lincoln Beal and the Raiders scored on the last play of the game on a 60-yard run junior George Chaya.

"This was a good win for us," said Adamopoulos. "That (Andover) is a good team that can put up a lot of points and I thought our defense played really well. We didn't give up a lot of big plays."

Among those who played well defensively for the Raiders were Kevin Higgins, Jermaine Wiggins and Enly DeLaCruz up front and backers Michael Finneran, Donatio and Kassis.

For Andover, Michael Slayton was a standout on both sides of the ball, catching five passes for 87 yards and leading the team on defense.