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Third quarter eruption nets Hornets win

IPSWICH — All it took last night was one halftime adjustment and one turnover and, in the space of eight minutes, North Reading had a bona fide blowout.

Struggling on offense with a 6-0 halftime lead, a Hornet defense that controlled the first half picked off an Ipswich pass on the first play of the second half. With the offensive line deftly adjusted, North Reading scored three times in just seven plays to hammer home a 26-0 season-starting victory before about 150 soggy fans in Ipswich.

“We’ve got a lot of smart kids,” Hornet head coach Jeff Wall explained. “In the locker room at halftime they were telling us what (Ipswich) was doing and they were spot on. We just changed up one of our blocking schemes we were running and that proved to be it.”

After first-year senior linebacker Matt DiVecchia snagged the errant Tiger pass and returned it 19 yards to the Ipswich 20, Ipswich’s morale sagged and North Reading took advantage.

Senior Robert Rosano (82 yards on 12 carries) took the next handoff and rambled the distance behind brother Nick Rosano to the end zone. And after a three-and-out gave the Hornets the ball at midfield, a fumbled snap turned into a 29-yard run from quarterback John Brooks (12 carries for 103 yards) followed by an athletic 21-yard run to the end zone by Robert Rosano.

The final straw snapped for Ipswich when its only march into the red zone died at the Hornet 7 after three incomplete passes, the last defended by Robert Rosano.

On offense, Brooks followed guard Andrew Burns for 63 yards into Tiger territory, then hooked up with senior Richard Schaffer three plays later for a 31-yard touchdown with 1:26 left in the third quarter. Four plays, 93 yards, game over.

“Our offense exceeded my expectations, at least on my end,” Wall said of a 237-yard effort, 183 coming in the final 20 minutes, “but I’m more proud of our defense. They stepped up big when they had to.”

Apart from DiVecchia’s turnover, North Reading stuffed 10 of Ipswich’s 46 offensive plays for negative yardage. Amazingly, there were eight different primary tacklers involved, showing the effectiveness of a swarming Hornet defense.

Ipswich was shackled to just four yards of offense and one first down in the first half due to the efforts of Robert Rosano (two defended passes), senior Pat Sullivan (two stops for lost yardage, blocked punt, defended pass) and junior Andrew Burns (forced fumble).

“And next is Newburyport,” Wall said of his next opponent. “With Kyle LeBlanc (who scored in the Clippers’ 19-0 victory over Hamilton-Wenham last night) and some big linemen, it’s going to be a challenge.”

Newburyport held the Generals to only 46 yards of offense in the win.