Lynn Tech junior Steffan Gravely fields a punt against Chelsea Thursday night. Photo by Bob Roche
By Steve Krause
LYNN — Don’t let that 129-yard figure next to Steffan Gravely’s name fool you. That doesn’t tell the whole story.
Gravely did run for 129 yards Thursday in leading Lynn Tech to a 34-0 season-opening win over Chelsea at Manning Field. But 89 of them came in the first half when Gravely, a junior running back, ran over, under, through and around the Red Devils as his team ran up 28 of those points. Had coach James Runner chosen to keep running Gravely the same way for the entire game, there’s no telling how many yards he would have finished with.
“He ran like a man tonight, there’s no doubt about it,” said Runner.
But what pleased the Tigers’ coach is that it wasn’t just Gravely doing all the running. His running-mate, so to speak in the backfield, was Keoni Gaskin. Also a junior, Gaskin finished up with one touchdown and 87 yards in essentially 2½ quarters before Runner called off the dogs.
“It’s good that we got a big contribution out of him,” said Runner. “That way, teams can’t go into games against us thinking Gravely, Gravely, Gravely.”
To expound further, Tech ran for 185 yards in the first half and 332 for the game. And the Tigers did this without completing a single pass.
“But,” said Runner, “(Jamar) Johnson did a good job at quarterback. You still have to recognize what the other team’s trying to do.
“We also broke out our no-huddle a few times,” said Runner. “We’d kept that pretty much under wraps.
“We played well,” he said, “but it’s a long season.”
The defense was as stifling as the offense was hot, another thing that pleased Runner very much.
“Our D-Linemen made a lot of good plays and that let the linebackers do their thing,” he said.
Gravely let Chelsea, and the good opening-night crowd, know what it was in store for right away when he ran back a punt 33 yards after the Red Devils’ first possession. That set the Tigers up with a first down at the Chelsea 17. Gaskin ran for 13 and Gravely ran up the middle for the other four and Tech, thanks to the first of Robert Woodley’s four successful PATs, made it 7-0.
It stayed that way for a quarter before the Tigers exploded for three scores in the second period. The actually straddled the first and second quarters for the first one, going 61 yards on only five plays that included runs of 30 and 20 yards by Gravely before he took it in from the 2-yard line with 10:48 to go in the half.
Tech scored the next time it had the ball, this time going 51 yards in four plays. Gravely and Woodley ran for 19 and 23 yards respectively before Gravely scored from five yards out.
Gaskin was rewarded for all his running with 1:50 to go in the quarter with a 2-yard run, one play after fending off three tacklers on the near sideline for a 33-yard romp.
Joan Garcia scored Tech’s final touchdown with 2:25 to go in the third quarter on a 2-yard run.
Tech is back in action next Friday at Bishop Fenwick against Triton.
BOX SCORE:
Chelsea 0 0 0 0 — 0
Tech 7 21 7 0 — 0
T — Steffan Gravely 4 run (Robert Woodley kick)
T — Gravely 2 run (Woodley kick)
T — Gravely 5 run (Woodley kick)
T — Keoni Gaskin 2 run (Woodley kick)
T — Joan Garcia 2 run (kick failed)
C T
1st downs 5 17
Yds rushing 113 321
Yds Passing 42 0
Tot. Yds 155 321
Pen-yds 6-30 4-35
Fum-Rec 0 0
Plays run 40 37
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
C — TJ Patterson 14-61, Nick Ieng 5-25; T — Gravely 11-124, Gaskin 8-101
PASSING
C — Patterson 4-42-0; T — None
RECEIVING
C — Leo 2-19
