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Reggies' defense roughs up Greater Lowell to set up showdown for title

Tuesday, November, 06 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

Give this game ball to the defense.

Greater Lawrence Tech was finding it hard to turn a wide-field position advantage into points against a hulking Greater Lowell squad. Halfback Nate Adames was a marked man once again, but this time he was held in check with only 80 yards. Major penalties took two Reggie touchdowns off the board and killed other two drives while an interception five yards from paydirt ended another march.

But the Greater Lawrence defense more than did its part, not only shutting out the Gryphons for much of the contest but creating four turnovers, two of which were immediately turned into fourth-quarter touchdowns. A fumble recovery on special teams allowed the Reggies to own the ball for the entire third quarter. It all added up to a 26-8 victory that keeps Greater Lawrence's record unblemished at 9-0.

"We played regular defense on these guys, we just shut them down," said Reggie head coach Tony Sarkis. "If it wasn't for the defense, we'd have been in trouble, absolutely."

The victory set up a winner-take-all showdown with Shawsheen Tech (7-1, 2-0 CAC Large) in Billerica Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The winner will go to the Eastern Mass. playoffs.

Greater Lowell (now 3-6) was shackled by the efforts of lineman George Cruz (fumble recovery, two tipped passes, first career interception returned 35 yards for a touchdown), safety Adames (eight tackles and a tipped pass), defensive back Jonathan Delossantos (forced fumble, interception off of Adames' tip returned 58 yards for a score), linebacker John Cote (sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery), and Yerison Cruz (fumble recovery).

"We didn't execute well in the first part of the game," George Cruz said. "But the team started to play better together, the pressure was coming up and (Ricky Sheehan) had to force his throws."

Although he found the end zone twice on runs of 1 and 2 yards, Adames had to work extra hard. With defensive ends owning the edges and linebacker Paul Leakeas stalking Adames, other options were needed.

"Greater Lowell did a great job of containing the outside," said Sarkis, "and their front four guys are big and strong so we knew that (running inside) would be a difficult job. We threw more than we ever threw it (yesterday)."

Delossantos connected on 7 of 14 passes for 98 yards including three circus grabs in one possession by fullback Victor Sosa that set up Adames' second TD and a 14-0 lead. That 15-play, 72-yard drive, running almost nine minutes off the third-quarter clock, was the Reggies' best of the day.