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Beal sparks Andover romp

Friday, April, 02 By By Dave Dyer

ANDOVER — Count Andover sophomore running back Lincoln Beal among those who love playing during this Fall 2 season.

The temperature was hovering around freezing Friday night for the Warriors’ home game against Lawrence, but Beal could have cared less.

“I love the cold weather and I love playing in it,” said Beal.

Beal certainly played like it in Andover’s 44-6 victory as he scored three touchdowns, rushed for 73 yards on just nine carries and caught four passes for 94 yards.

The highlight of it all was a 54-yard TD reception on the last play of the second quarter. Led nicely down the sidelines by quarterback Scott Brown, he juggled the ball before securing it and speeding to the end zone.

Combining his runs and receptions out of the backfield, Beal did a good impression of New England Patriots’ running back James White.

“I love catching the ball,” said Beal. “I played receiver before so I like to bring that into the backfield.”

When running the ball, Beal also showed good toughness, breaking a number of tackles. On the game’s first touchdown, he shrugged off a tackler near the line of scrimmage and plowed into another tackler at the goal line to complete a 12-yard run.

“He (Beal) runs hard and he hits hard,” said Andover coach EJ Perry, whose club improved to 3-. “He’s going to be as good as he wants to be. He has the ability and the speed.”

Beal also scored on a 6-yard run and, with a 1-yard run by senior Andrew Layman and a safety, the Warriors held a commanding 30-0 halftime lead.

The safety came when a poor snap went over the quarterback’s head and out of the end zone. It was the third straight game in which Lawrence had problems snapping the ball, but it did improve in that category.

Lawrence got on the board early in the third quarter when freshman quarterback Jayden Abreu lofted a nice ball to speedy Adonis Garcia, who hauled it in and zoomed for a 65-yard touchdown.

But Andover put the game away with two more touchdowns, first on a beautifully drawn 33-yard pass to Tomas Loureiro and then a one-yard run by Brown.

Among those playing well for Lawrence were junior Estarling Morales, who ran the ball three times for 25 yards and had an interception he ran back 30 yards, and sophomore Andy Medina, who caught five passes for 56 yards.

But overall, the Lancers could not move the ball with consistency as the Andover defense — sparked by senior linebacker Connor Sheehan — held firm.

The Warriors (3-1) have now won three straight games and will try to build on their momentum next Friday when it hits the road for a huge game against Central Catholic. Lawrence (0-3) will be at Tewksbury Saturday afternoon.