FILE PHOTO.
Matt Lauria ran for two touchdowns in Classical’s hard fought loss to Beverly.
By Gordon Vincent
LYNN – Valiant efforts don’t show up in the standings, but if they did, the Lynn Classical football team could check off that box after the Rams’ game on Friday.
Beverly’s Kyle Chouinard scored a 2-yard touchdown run with 3:40 to go to allow the Panthers to escape with a 28-22 win over the feisty Rams at Manning Field.
Classical (1-6) took the lead with 5:57 left when Matt Lauria scored on a 17-yard run, his second touchdown of the game.
“I’m proud of the effort,” Classical coach Tim Phelps said. “We fought hard against a good team. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we played hard.”
Marcus Rivera scored the Rams’ other touchdown. For Beverly (5-2), Kevin Morency scored a pair of running touchdowns and threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Sam Abate.
“They made some big plays, we made some big plays,” Phelps said. “They hit us, we hit them right back. The important thing was we didn’t back down.”
Classical’s Alex Pedro returned the opening kickoff 70 yards to set up a quick 4-play drive that was culminated by Rivera’s 3-yard touchdown run just 61 seconds into the game.
The Panthers responded with a 58-yard, 10-play march that ended with a 2-yard sneak by Morency, who kept the drive alive with a 2-yard throw to Hugh Calice on 4th-and-1 from Classical’s 22.
Beverly also scored on its second drive of the game, a 45-yard, 11-play grind that included three third-down conversions, the last of which was a 1-yard touchdown run by Morency to give the Panthers a 14-7 lead with 8:53 left in the first half.
Classical answered with its longest drive of the first half, a 71-yard march that was capped off by Lauria’s 32-yard keeper. Two plays prior, Pedro picked up six yards on 4th-and-4.The Panthers came right back with a 83-yard scoring drive that lasted just 57 seconds. On 4th-and-5, Morency found Abate at Classical’s 15-yard line, where he broke a tackle and then sprinted into the end zone to make the score 21-14 at halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, the Rams took the lead with a 78-yard, 8-play drive that included a 21-yard run by Pedro and finished with a 17-yard scamper up the middle by Lauria. Phelps boldly went for a 2-point conversion and Rivera scored on a sweep to the right to make the score 22-21.
Beverly came right back with what turned out to be the winning touchdown drive, which went 62 yards in just five plays, the biggest of which was a 40-yard scramble by Morency. Two plays later, Chouinard blasted into the end zone to give the Panthers a 6-point lead.
The Rams picked up a first down and made it to midfield on their last drive, but an interception by Johnny Jones at the Panthers’ 16-yard line with 44 seconds left sealed the win for Beverly.