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North Reading rolls over Watertown

WATERTOWN | Three mistakes in the first 13 minutes was all it took for North Reading to get comfortable.

The Hornets took advantage of a man-to-man defensive lapse, poor defense on a punt return and a fumble deep in the Watertown zone to put up 21 points before the half, and rolled to a 28-0 victory over the Raiders.

"This year we've been able to (capitalize on mistakes) a lot more, where in years past we weren't making our own breaks," said head coach Jeff Wall, whose team improved to 3-0. "Now our kids are more mature and they understand the importance of capitalizing on them."

It was Darren Hartwell who did the bulk of the work to start the game. On the third play from scrimmage, he blew past his defender at the line and caught a deep ball from quarterback Jimmy Campbell down the left sideline in stride, then ran it in for a 51-yard score.

"We called it when we saw them rolling up to play man, and we knew we had a real good shot at taking the deep ball and trying to score early," said Wall.

It was Watertown, which snapped a 23-game losing streak last week, that couldn't recover.

While the Hornets were running out the clock, Dino Rizzo (11 carries, 82 yards) wore down the Watertown defense and punched in a 2-yard run to cap a 41-yard drive and close the scoring.