FILE PHOTO
Classical’s Marcus Rivera capped off a memorable Thanksgiving with his 83-yard game-winning kick return.
By STEVE KRAUSE
This is the penultimate “Second-and-Long.” Next week, after Saturday’s Super Bowls, there will be a member of the athletic staff at the door collecting equipment.
Some schools have already done that. It’s onto basketballs, hoops, sticks, pucks, wrestling headgear, bathing suits and whatever that stuff is you rub on your hands to get a better grip on the uneven parallel bars.
For the most part, Thanksgiving went the way most impartial observers thought. There were a couple of games that, before they were played, looked as if they could go either way. The only real surprise out of those was the final score of the Danvers-Gloucester game: 41-27 Falcons. That’s one most people would have pegged for being a lot closer.
Also, Lynnfield may have lost to North Reading, but it was only by a point, and the Hornets were the runners-up in Division 2A North. It’s a testament to how far the Pioneers came this year that they were in the game. Don’t forget, they lost their first two games (even though Week 2’s loss was to Danvers, which proved itself as no fluke this season).
Revere-Winthrop is always a tough game to gauge. This venerable rivalry has been pretty much all Winthrop’s over the last 30 years, but lately these games have been fierce struggles that could have gone either way. It was much the same this year, and Revere pulled it out on its home field and ended up with a winning record. The Patriots started out 0-4 and ended up 6-5. Props to them for hanging in there.
Xaverian has a chance Saturday to prove it’s the best team in the state, and the Hawks should be so crowned if they defeat Everett. Yet St. John’s Prep gave them all they could possibly handle in losing last Wednesday, 7-6. The Eagles had a couple of chances to win, but it just wasn’t to be. Watch out for them in the next couple of years.
It was nice to see Tech handle Austin Prep the way it did. Last year, it was the other way around and there were cries all over the place wondering how and why the school picked Austin, which is consistently one of the better programs around.
The Tigers answered that question this year.
The Beverly-Salem, Marblehead-Swampscott and Peabody-Saugus games were fairly predictable.
It’ll be sad to see Mike Broderick ride off into the sunset, though. He has always been a decent, stand-up guy who has tried to make the most of what he had, and never ducked those who covered the team. The town was fortunate to have him as long as it did, and he will be missed.
Hats off to St. Mary’s coach Matt Durgin for playing all his healthy starters against Bishop Fenwick. Going in, that looked to be a pretty hard-hitting game. It would have been so tempting for Durgin to hold out Calvin Johnson, who suffered an achilles injury in the Division 1 North final game against Stoneham, but he played.
Keep your hat on, however, Duxbury coach Dave Maimaron walks by. He benched all his starters for his Thanksgiving game against Marshfield (the Dragons will be in the Division 2 Super Bowl). The Rams didn’t just win, they demolished the Dragons.
The excuse was that Duxbury had to play the extra state semifinal game. And while it’s certainly a concern to play three games in two weeks, other teams have done it.
It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The thinking is that because if the current playoff system, Thanksgiving is now meaningless. Whether that’s true or not, it seems counter-intuitive for coaches to go about proving it.
We’ve come this far without talking about the Classical-English game. I’ve seen all sorts of comeback wins in my life, at all levels. But the true stuff of legends, like the fiasco with the Stanford band, and the Kevin Dyson returns, have been saved for TV. I was lucky enough to see Dyson’s return when it happened, but saw the Stanford tuba player get bowled over via Memorex.
What Marcus Rivera did last Thursday ranked right up there with the best of them. Not only did he run the kick back (after receiving a lateral from Melvin Nieves), he ran it back a lot farther than the 83 yards for which he received credit.
By the time Rivera got the ball from Nieves he was close to being inside his own 10-yard line.
He’ll be telling his grandchildren about that play, and it’ll be on every end-of-the-year highlight compilation there is in this area.
There are so many quirks about the play. Squib kicks are designed to slow the receiving team down, and to (possibly) induce fumbles. This one bounced right up into Nieves’ hands.
Nieves was in the process of being tackled when he got the ball off to Rivera. And Rivera dodged what looked to be a sure tackle way back at his own 10, but managed to wiggle free and start his journey up field.
Simply an astounding, unbelievable play.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].