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 HAVERHILL — A few muffed punts here. A few fumbles there. Four failed fourth down conversions in the opponents territory. Four  more dropped passes. And its quarterback was sacked seven times.

NORTH ANDOVER - When the floodgates opened early, North Andover proved powerless to stop it, as Billerica rode a 29-point second quarter to a convincing 42-13 win over the Scarlet Knights Friday night.
Billerica (5-0) set the tone early, driving 77 yards in five plays before scoring on a 9-yard run by Drew Laundry.
North Andover (3-2) stuffed the conversion attempt, and on the ensuing drive, the Knights moved the ball well enough before stalling at midfield. The Knights forced a turnover on downs on Billerica's next possession to keep it a 6-0 game at the end of the first, but then things started going south in a hurry.
Billerica scored four touchdowns in the second quarter, with all four coming within the first four plays of each drive, and all four coming on big plays.
The first came on a 73-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Justin Beck to receiver Dean Brooks on the first play following a North Andover three-and-out. Beck converted the subsequent two-point conversion to make it 14-0.
North Andover punted its next drive, and Billerica came right down with four straight big runs to score again, with Laundry scoring again on a 29-yard run.
On the ensuing kickoff, Billerica attempted and recovered an onside kick, but the ball was ruled out of bounds before the receiver had it.
It ultimately wouldn't matter because, on the next play, Billerica forced a fumble and recovered, and then two plays after that, Beck hit receiver Jeff Trainor for a 19-yard touchdown pass to all but put the game out of reach.
Billerica scored one last time on a 38-yard touchdown from Beck to receiver Gus Gobiel, which made it 35-0 going into halftime. At that point, North Andover coach John Dubinski said his message to the team was simple - just keep playing.
"We talked in the locker room and said we have to create short term, attainable goals," Dubinski said. "We said we need to win the third quarter, we need guys to have a good attitude, we don't want guys who are going to quit on us, and they responded pretty well."
North Andover played much better in the second half, though Billerica sat many of its starters from that point on. The Knights got on the board late in the third quarter after quarterback Seamus Lambert rushed for an 11-yard touchdown, and after Billerica scored following a 17-play drive that soaked up 8:30 of game clock, the Knights got one last score as time expired on a 12-yard TD pass from Lambert to Chris Miller.

Methuen football couldn't get anything going on Friday, losing to unbeaten Billerica 42-15. Billerica received the ball first and proceeded to control the ball for nearly the entire quarter, driving 77 yards on 16 plays while running 10:06 off the clock before Justin Beck scampered in on an 11-yard rush to make it 7-0. The Indians extended their lead to 14-0 on a 1-yard touchdown by Drew Laundry following a Methuen pass interference penalty on fourth and long, and just before halftime Beck found Jeff Trainor for a 30-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 going into halftime. Methuen got on the board early in the third after quarterback Kendrick Denose escaped for a 77-yard touchdown, but Billerica responded with an 8-play, 66-yard drive capped off by another 1-yard touchdown by Laundry. Then, Beck found Trainor for an 8-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-7, and after the subs came in, the Indians got one last 1-yard touchdown from Herby Pierre. Methuen is now 1-3 and is at Lawrence next Friday 7 p.m.

BILLERICA — It was a dominating performance by Billerica on Friday night, as the Indians blanked conference rival Lawrence 27-0. The Indians relied heavily on their running game to set the tone early, as starting quarterback Justin Beck only dropped back to pass seven times throughout the entire game, and Billerica was able to use its size to get whatever it wanted on offense. "They're good. We got to make plays against teams like this," said Lawrence head coach Mike Yameen. "We had a couple drives that stalled out, some mental mistakes, and I told the guys that they played harder and faster than us today. That can't happen against good teams like this." Yameen and the Lancers could do nothing to stop running back Drew Laundry, who totaled 168 all purpose yards (147 rushing) to go along with two rushing touchdowns. Billerica jumped out in front right away, methodically driving 66 yards on eight plays to score a touchdown on the opening drive of the game. The Lancers were hurt by star running back Kenny Richards missing his second straight week with a knee injury, and key defensive player Eddie Cabrera also had to watch the game from the sidelines for the Lancers due to an injury. The Indians, meanwhile, utilized every call in their playbook in front of a good home crowd. With 6:25 left in the first half, Beck threw an out pass to wideout Dean Brooks who dropped back himself to zip a spiral to a wide open Jeff Trainor for a 40-yard pass. "We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, and you just can't do that against a good team like this," said Yameen. Though the score didn't show it, the Lancers showed great fight in the loss. The Lancer defense got up to make a huge fourth down goal line stop late in the third quarter that would have made the scoreboard look even more lopsided. The trouble was the team couldn't get anything going on offense. Quarterback Ismael Jenkins was only 5-for-16 with 50 yards, and while. Darryl Munoz and Angel Abrue tried to pick up the workload on the ground for the Lancers, they couldn't get in the endzone. "We got to finish off our drives, and get off the field on fourth down," Yameen said. Lawrence, now 2-1, will gear up for its game against Haverhill next Friday night.