RallyNorth.net

Pizzuto held below average, but Greater Lawrence still gets win

Saturday, October, 17 By Jeff Hamrick

ANDOVER — After rushing for 396 yards in one game, you can be sure people will wonder what a running back does for an encore. And while Joe Pizzuto didn't come close to matching his area record of a week earlier, the junior still managed a game most backs would give body parts for.

Mystic Valley might take comfort in limiting Pizzuto to 185 yards — 27 yards fewer than his season average — it wasn't near enough to prevent Greater Lawrence from running away with a 30-8 victory in a non-conference game yesterday afternoon.

"We have high expectations," said Pizzuto, who averaged 7.7 yards on his 24 carries before sitting out the entire fourth quarter. "We need to win the rest of our games. We came out in the beginning of the game, but then after that we sort of laid down and let them back into the game. After the halftime, we came out and did our jobs. Every single play we need to go full steam."

Actually, Greater Lawrence (4-2) jumped to a 9-0 lead with just a single play from scrimmage, scoring on a safety before Pizzuto ran in from 7 yards one play after a 57-yard kickoff return by Anthony Ocasio. The Reggies made it 16-0 on their following possession with a 1-yard bootleg by Juan Carlos Gomez.

In the first half, Pizzuto had six rushes for nine yards or more en route to 122 yards on 16 attempts. Running behind a line that averages 230 pounds and features tackles Luis Veras (6-foot-3, 270 pounds) and Jeffrey Balbi, guards Juan Olivio (6-2, 260) and Bernard Rosario and center Randall Gigliotti, Pizzuto had help downfield. When it wasn't Olivio or Rosario, it was fullback Angel Rivera providing key blocks 10 to 15 yards upfield.

"Our downfield blocking is huge," Greater Lawrence coach Tony Sarkis said. "Our big guys can move. That's the main reason we're successful at it. They get out in the free spaces and that helps our running back because he finds the blockers and just goes with them.

"In practice we emphasize that they have to keep going with their blocks. When they hit one guy and he goes down, you have to look for another guy to hit. They obviously listen to us."

The second half was more of the same as the Reggies scored 14 points before Mystic Valley ran a play from scrimmage. Gomez threw to Ocasio for a 28-yard touchdown then Nick Sosa recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff setting up Pizzuto's second touchdown.

"In the first half, I thought we were flat, and I let the guys know it," Sarkis said. "We said we had to come out and play the way we can, and they came out and did it, so I was very happy that they responded to it."

Mystic Valley, which has only five seniors among the 27 players that suited up — three more than the 24 cheerleaders that accompanied the Eagles — averted the shutout on a 22-yard run by Eric Natale with 1:40 left. On their final drive, the Eagles gained 80 of their 114 yards of total offense.

"Olivio is the beacon of that whole defense," Sarkis said. "All our guys can get out and move on defense. It's a very agile defense and they're physical too."