RallyNorth.net

Mon, Oct 29, 2007 11:00 AM @ North Reading

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	OT	Final
Lawrence	7	0	7	0	0	14
North Reading	0	6	8	0	6	20

Rizzo, North Reading top Lawrence in OT

Tuesday, October, 30 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

In a movie-length package, this was the good, the bad and the ugly of high school football.

Both North Reading and Lawrence made dazzling plays, but then had head-scratching turnovers. Even the referees got into the act with some questionable decisions. And, all the while, the game got increasingly chippy, leading to 127 total yards of penalties and six major infractions.

Behind the athleticism of Ramon Heredia and Alex Andrews, the visiting Lancers held a pair of leads. But the Hornets found themselves when they decided to get back to basics, eventually riding a three-touchdown day by Dino Rizzo to a hard-fought 20-14 overtime victory that snapped their two-game losing streak.

Andrews, a 6-3 junior, had an early impact with a pair of impressive first-half interceptions while adding five catches for 79 yards offensively.

Heredia triggered the Lawrence attack, connecting on 14 of 23 passes for 155 yards that included a 24-yard hookup with wide receiver Demitri Brown for the Lancers' first touchdown late in the first quarter. The quarterback also fought his way out of a Rizzo sack attempt in the third quarter to complete a 44-yard pass-and-run with Harvey Blanco that led to Heredia's 7-yard TD romp two plays later.

"Lawrence scares me every year more than any team we're going to play," North Reading head coach Jeff Wall said. "They have a lot of raw ability, a lot of numbers, and a good coach (in Mike Yameen). If they don't turn the ball over several times, you're in for a rough afternoon."

North Reading (5-3) struggled to find itself, but stayed close. Swapping Rizzo from running back to quarterback, the Hornets answered both Lawrence TDs.

Rizzo's 1-yard scoring run, set up by his 23-yard pass to Josh Robinson, drew North Reading to within a point. The senior's 28-yard scoring sweep and two-point conversion pass to Robinson with 1:52 left in the fourth quarter drew the Hornets even.

Tension mounted when a 32-yard Lawrence pass caught by both Andrews and North Reading's John Brooks was ruled a reception and "fumble" recovered by Brooks despite both players still holding the ball. It increased in the final minute of regulation when a fourth-down muscle tussle in the Lancer end zone between Brown and Hornet Bobby Rosano resulted in an incomplete pass and a flag, ultimately refused, for offensive pass interference.

In overtime, Lawrence (now 1-7) chose to play defense first and held North Reading inches from paydirt before Rizzo leaped in on fourth down for the score.

On their first play, Lawrence fumbled the ball on a sweep and it was recovered by North Reading's 320-pound senior Nick Chalmers to end the contest.

"We told our kids straight-out (that) it's going to be a toss play," Wall said. "We didn't care if they ran something else, just play toss. Sometimes you get away with one like that."

"Obviously, they made one more play than us," Yameen observed, "but we came in and we battled. For the past few weeks, we've seen losses of 35-7, 42-7. ... We've had some growing pains but this was one of our better defensive games."