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Wade shines but Royals fall

NEWBURYPORT — In the chase for the Cape Ann League Small championship, the Newburyport Clippers kept their title hopes alive in a big way, putting up 26 first-half points on Georgetown before going on to win, 32-14.
Now Newburyport must hope that Lynnfield beats Hamilton-Wenham today at 1 p.m. in Hamilton by scoring at least 15 points, which would then put the Clippers in first place in the Small via the three-way tie rule of points against in the games versus the two teams a team is tied with. Currently, Newburyport has allowed 21 points against Lynnfield and Hamilton-Wenham combined, Hamilton-Wenham gave up just seven points versus Newburyport in the first game of the year, and Lynnfield cannot win the tiebreaker because they gave up 24 points already to Newburyport.
The Clippers made the Royals pay early and often on two key Georgetown fumbles. On just the third play of the game, Derek Depasquale took a pitch to the left side of the field, got injured on the play and did not return, but also fumbled the ball, allowing James Hundertmark to recover for Newburyport.
Taking over on the Georgetown 43-yard line, the Clippers ran a halfback pass, as Ryan O’Connor handed the ball off to Connor Wile, who took two steps, stopped and hurled a pass downfield to the wide-open Brett Fontaine (2 receptions, 96 yards, 2 touchdowns).
“We saw something on film and thought that was the best time to do it,” Newburyport coach Ed Gaudiano said. “It worked pretty well; can’t get any more open than that.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Jonathan Wright’s kick went high but short, and again the Royals coughed up the ball to Newburyport. Tyler Martin then took the handoff on the next play 39 yards for the score, and the Clippers went up 14-0 when O’Connor connected with James Conway for the two-point conversion.
Newburyport, however, was not finished in the quarter. Getting the ball back after a Royals punt, O’Connor (1-4-53-1-0) and company marched the ball 76 yards on just seven plays in a little under four minutes and struck again when the senior quarterback hit the wide-open Fontaine on a busted coverage on third-and-11 for a 53-yard touchdown completion, 20-0.
“We worked on the option pass all week, and we thought we’d get them on the first play. And thank god it worked; it was wide open” said Fontaine, who along with many of his other Clipper teammates will be traveling to Hamilton-Wenham tomorrow to root for Lynnfield. “Then on the other one, I think they just missed a coverage, and I was sitting there wide open again. I must have been invisible or something.”
O’Connor (3-51-1) added a 40-yard touchdown run of his own in the second quarter before he was pulled from the game early in the third quarter, and Tyler Cusack (6-73-1) capped the Clipper scoring with a 9-yard run in the third quarter.
Georgetown battled back in the fourth quarter thanks to two nice scoring drives from junior quarterback Tyler Wade (14-22-143-0-0; 16-41-2), who completed nine of 14 throws for 107 yards as well as rushing for 24 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.
“I think our guys played extremely tough today,” Georgetown coach Matt Bouchard said. “(Newburyport’s) a good football team; my hat’s off to them. They came out with the trick play right off the bat, caught us on our heels a little bit, and they kept the momentum the whole rest of the game; and we just couldn’t get things clicking in the first half. There’s a couple of momentum shifts right there that we can’t deal with, and versus a good team like that you’re just not going to have a chance if there’s that much of an uphill battle.”
Showing poise in the face of adversity, Bouchard was quite pleased with how Wade played, leading his team to two scores in the fourth quarter.
“Tyler, he’s one of those kids that no question is one of the big leaders on this team,” Bouchard said. “He controls the huddle, he manages the huddle very, very well, and I think at the end of the day what separates a good quarterback from a bad quarterback isn’t stats, it’s how they manage that huddle. And to have him come out in the second half and control the huddle and really manage the game, I think that’s really what I’m looking for at the quarterback position. Those big games and those tough adverse situations, I need a guy that’s going to be able to manage those situations, and today he proved he could do it, so that’s all good stuff.”
Controlling the game with a great running attack that saw the Clippers amass 216 yards on the ground for the entire game, 175 of which came in the first half alone, Gaudiano was very pleased with how the team executed and controlled possession.
“We just talked about taking care of business, and we did,” Gaudiano said. “We played with a good pace, we ran the ball well and to do that coming off a tough Triton game, we got a rhythm going, and we just stuck with it.
“I’ve always said we’re a work in progress,” continued Gaudiano, speaking as to how the team has been able to plug in tail back after tail back despite suffering injuries all throughout the year with players like Martin, Cusack, Dean Cataldo and lately even O’Connor picking up the slack in the running game. “These guys come out, they work at things every day during the week to get better. I think that’s the main strength of the team, and I just think we feel comfortable getting guys into different spots. I think we’re different team than we were at the beginning of the year.”

Newburyport 32, Georgetown 14
at World War Memorial Stadium in Georgetown
Georgetown    0    0    0    14    — 14
Newburyport    20    6    6    0    — 32
First Quarter
N — Connor Wile 43-yard pass to Brett Fontaine (Jonathon Wright no good), 7:36
N — Tyler Martin 39-yard run (Ryan O’Connor to James Conway), 7:23
N — O’Connor 53-yard pass to Fontaine (no good), 1:42
Second Quarter
N — O’Connor 40-yard run (no good), 5:21
Third Quarter
N — Tyler Cusack 9-yard run (no good), 1:16
Fourth Quarter
G — Tyler Wade 4-yard run (Wade good), 5:41
G — Wade 1-yard run (good), 1:16
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Newburyport — O’Connor 1-4-53-1-0, Wile 1-1-43-1; Georgetown — Wade 14-22-143-0-0.
Rushing: Newburyport — Cusack 6-73-1, Martin 10-72-1, O’Connor 3-51-1, Dean Cataldo 5-17, James Hundertmark 1-1; Georgetown — Wade 16-41-2, Derek Depasquale 1-5, Max Mangano 6- (-7).
Receiving: Newburyport — Fontaine 2-96-2; Georgetown — Niko Edwards 4-51, Mangano 3-27, Erik Augustine 4-26, Jared Lathrop 2-24, Michael Watson 1-15.