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Croce field goal sinks Georgetown

Friday, October, 09 By Dan Guttenplan
Staff writer

AMESBURY — Amesbury stacked up Georgetown quarterback Chris Esposito inside the Amesbury 1-yard-line with 3:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, effectively sealing a 3-0 victory at Landry Stadium.
“You can’t get any better than winning on a goal-line stand,” Amesbury coach Thom Connors said. “They pushed us right to the goal-line, but we did what we needed to do.”
Amesbury (1-3) dominated possession in the first half, running 32 offensive plays to Georgetown’s 10. Amesbury opened the game with a nine-play, 40-yard drive, which ended when Nick Croce missed a 46-yard field goal attempt. Three plays later, the Royals (0-4) fumbled on their own 39.

Then, the Indians drove to the 5 before the Royals stiffened. Croce connected on a 26-yard field goal to provide the only points of the game.

“We have a great kicker,” Connors said. “The worst thing you can do is not use him. He kicked a 47-yarder here (on Thursday). But the air was soupy (last night). We really needed to score touchdowns.”

Georgetown’s longest drive in the first half was just 22 yards.
Georgetown had its best chance on the final drive. Starting on its own 36 with 7:57 left, Derek DePasquale had three runs for a total of 37 yards on the 11-play, 63-yard drive. Esposito consistently found holes running quarterback draws. He had eight of his 18 carries and 36 of his 76 rushing yards on that drive.
On fourth-and-3 from just outside the Amesbury 3, Esposito followed his left guard and left tackle but was stacked up by Amesbury lineman James Pelky at the 1.
“They played their hearts out,” Georgetown coach Matt Bouchard said. “Defensively, we did the right thing. We struggled with our field position all game. Offensively, we didn’t get started until the second half. We just didn’t have many possessions. But from where we were in camp to where we are now, we’ve drastically improved.”
Esposito (18 carries, 76 yards; 2 of 4 passing, 21 yards) was the focus of Amesbury’s defensive game plan.
“He was killing us on both sides of the ball,” Connors said. “When he was playing linebacker, we tried to get a body on him a lot more in the second half. Offensively, he’s tough to tackle.”