RallyNorth.net

Fri, Sep 24, 2010 07:00 PM @ Cambridge Rindge & Latin

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
North Andover	15	14	14	0	43
Cambridge Rindge & Latin	7	0	0	6	13

Walsh leads Knights past Cambridge

Friday, September, 24 By Mike McMahon
Staff writer

CAMBRIDGE — All it took was three plays for Cambridge Rindge and Latin to realize they were in for a long night.

Brandon Walsh just completed his second pass of the night – a 15-yard strike to senior David Foote on a third-down conversion – when one Cambridge coach looked at another and asked, “this kid is only a junior?”

The other coach answered simply, “yep,” while shaking his head, “told you he was trouble.”

Walsh was a picture of perfection in North Andover’s 43-13 win over Cambridge. The junior quarterback threw three touchdown strikes – two to Foote – ran for a score in the first half and returned a second quarter interception 47 yards for another trip to the end zone.

North Andover head coach John Rafferty, whose had Walsh as his starter since he was a freshman, has enjoyed watching him progress into what is now, without question, one of the best signal callers in the area.

“They’re teenagers and they grow,” Rafferty said. “All these guys change so much from one year to the next. Brandon is growing up before my eyes and I just say thank goodness we have one more year of him. He’s playing defense now and just wants to get better. He loves the game. He really loves playing the game and it shows every day in practice and out here in games like tonight. ”

After missing the Knights’ first game with a suspension, Walsh is 15 for 20 – an eye-popping 75 percent completion rate – with 354 yards and six touchdowns in two starts, leading the Knights’ offense to 83 points along the way.

Poised throughout the game – he wasn’t so much as touched inside the pocket – he was regularly able to make all of his reads before delivering perfect strikes, five of which Foote snatched for 128 yards and two scores.

“I had a ridiculous amount of time,” Walsh said. “It felt like forever sometimes. They did a great job up front making blocks and then our receivers were finding ways to get open and making plays.”

Walsh also had some blocks on his defensive touchdown, following linebacker Mike Weisman 47 yards as he crunched a handful of Cambridge defenders.

“I was just looking for a lane and Weisman was giving me good blocks so I followed him,” Walsh said.

North Andover’s defense was ferocious, sacking Derek Pizzaro five times, some while the senior attempted to scramble away from the fierce North Andover pressure.

“As the game progressed we caught up on our responsibilities,” Rafferty said. “We needed to rush the passer because if we didn’t, and he was allowed to just dump the ball off, we would have been in some trouble.”

For the game, North Andover outgained Cambridge 479-78.

 

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Walsh’s double dandy

Brandon Walsh has been on fire since missing Week 1.

Opp                   Cmp          Att          Yds         TD           INT         Rating

Amesbury           6               8            113         3              0              317.4

Cambridge          9              12           241         3              0              326.2

Total                  15            20           354         6              0              322.68

*By comparison,  the St. Louis Rams’ Sam Bradford set the NCAA passer rating record – the same formula used in high school football – with a rating of 175.6 from 2007-09.

 

Additional stories:

• Walsh, Knights lead big at half