PROVIDENCE — Just three plays in and Brooks was already trying to dig itself out of a hole.
Hamden Hall, a team known for its prolific offense (44.7 points per game), forced a fumble and returned it for a touchdown just 70 seconds into the New England Prep Mike Atkins Bowl Friday evening.
A big blow right from the start, but nothing that Brooks could not recover from.
But after another stop on defense, Hamden quarterback Luke Schoonmaker took his team’s first offense play 87 yards to the house, stunning the Brooks’ faithful and sending a buzz up and down the Hornets bench.
The game played rather evenly from that point, with Brooks even sniffing a lead early in the fourth quarter.
But Hamden (11-0) would not be denied its perfect season, using an early lead and a 20-point fourth quarter explosion to beat Brooks 38-13 at Berylson Family Fields at Brown University.
“We got behind the 8-ball early,” said Brooks coach Pat Foley, whose club finished with a 7-2 record. “Our defense had only been on the field for one play and we were already down two touchdowns. But they have a great offense and we knew that, and as the game went on they certainly showed it.”
While the final scoreboard will show 38 points for the Connecticut school, a Brooks defense which had posted back to back shutouts kept it close most of the way.
Down 18-0 with Hamden driving in the red zone, Nick Konovalchik recovered a fumble and nearly took it the length of the field for a score. The 70-yard return eventually set up a 1-yard Seamus Lambert quarterback keeper near the end of the first half to swing the momentum.
Coming out of halftime, Hamden’s first two drives ended in a Terrell Brown interception and another Brooks fumble recovery.
Midway through the third quarter, Brown took a reverse handoff for a 52-yard score which brought Brooks to within a touchdown.
After another stop on defense it seemed as though Lambert had given Brooks the lead with a deep TD strike to Justin Connolly, but an offensive holding call brought the play back.
“That was kind of a tough sequence there,” said Foley. “I thought we were going to score and go up, but in a blink it was a completely different game.”
Midway through the fourth Schoonmaker hit David Spitz for a 35-yard touchdown to bump the lead back up to 22-13. Desperation attempts caused two consecutive Brooks turnovers, both of which were capitalized upon for touchdowns by Hamden.
Brown was the man for Brooks, finishing with a team-high 52 yards on the ground, 80 receiving yards on three catches and an interception on defense.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Foley. “They had a great season and I feel bad that we couldn’t get the win today for the seniors.”
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Football, 11/18/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
PROVIDENCE — Just three plays in and Brooks was already trying to dig itself out of a hole.
Hamden Hall, a team known for its prolific offense (44.7 points per game), forced a fumble and returned it for a touchdown just 70 seconds into the New England Prep Mike Atkins Bowl Friday evening.
A big blow right from the start, but nothing that Brooks could not recover from.
But after another stop on defense, Hamden quarterback Luke Schoonmaker took his team’s first offense play 87 yards to the house, stunning the Brooks’ faithful and sending a buzz up and down the Hornets bench.
The game played rather evenly from that point, with Brooks even sniffing a lead early in the fourth quarter.
But Hamden (11-0) would not be denied its perfect season, using an early lead and a 20-point fourth quarter explosion to beat Brooks 38-13 at Berylson Family Fields at Brown University.
“We got behind the 8-ball early,” said Brooks coach Pat Foley, whose club finished with a 7-2 record. “Our defense had only been on the field for one play and we were already down two touchdowns. But they have a great offense and we knew that, and as the game went on they certainly showed it.”
While the final scoreboard will show 38 points for the Connecticut school, a Brooks defense which had posted back to back shutouts kept it close most of the way.
Down 18-0 with Hamden driving in the red zone, Nick Konovalchik recovered a fumble and nearly took it the length of the field for a score. The 70-yard return eventually set up a 1-yard Seamus Lambert quarterback keeper near the end of the first half to swing the momentum.
Coming out of halftime, Hamden’s first two drives ended in a Terrell Brown interception and another Brooks fumble recovery.
Midway through the third quarter, Brown took a reverse handoff for a 52-yard score which brought Brooks to within a touchdown.
After another stop on defense it seemed as though Lambert had given Brooks the lead with a deep TD strike to Justin Connolly, but an offensive holding call brought the play back.
“That was kind of a tough sequence there,” said Foley. “I thought we were going to score and go up, but in a blink it was a completely different game.”
Midway through the fourth Schoonmaker hit David Spitz for a 35-yard touchdown to bump the lead back up to 22-13. Desperation attempts caused two consecutive Brooks turnovers, both of which were capitalized upon for touchdowns by Hamden.
Brown was the man for Brooks, finishing with a team-high 52 yards on the ground, 80 receiving yards on three catches and an interception on defense.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said Foley. “They had a great season and I feel bad that we couldn’t get the win today for the seniors.”
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Football, 11/18/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
NORTH ANDOVER — Nothing was going to stop Brooks’ fantastic run on the football field Saturday afternoon.
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Football, 11/13/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
GROTON — North Andover’s Seamus Lambert found Merrimac’s Pat Freiermuth for a 60-yard touchdown early in the first quarter, and Brooks was off to the races from there, blowing out Groton 36-0 on Friday afternoon.
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Football, 11/06/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
NORTH ANDOVER — Every time Brooks went to the ground game in the first half Saturday, it seemed to go backwards.
So in the second half, head coach Patrick Foley put the game in the hands of quarterback Seamus Lambert. The junior signal-caller from North Andover delivered time and time again.
Lambert completed all but one of his passes in the second half for 178 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Will Gibeley, leading Brooks to a 13-9 comeback victory over Governor’s Academy.
“Seamus is just a wonderful quarterback. He makes the right decisions,” said blue-chip junior tight end/linebacker Pat Freiermuth of Merrimac, who had four catches for 65 yards. “He started slow but we kept picking him up as a team and he came out in the second half firing on all cylinders. That’s what we expect from him and he stepped up to the plate.”
The hosts (5-1) finished the first half without a first down and negative-8 yards of offense. Governor’s scored a safety, too, on a Brooks intentional grounding in the end zone.
Governor’s (4-2) scored on its first possession of the first half when Zachary Ludd powered a run in from six yards out putting his team ahead 9-0. The visitors nearly found the end zone again minutes later but quarterback Jared Dupere was stopped at the 1-yard-line on fourth down.
Then Lambert went to work. The North Andover High transfer connected on nine straight passes, including a 51-yard scoring strike to Gibeley, who burst down the right sideline and into the end zone for Brooks’ first score of the game with a little over seven minutes remaining in the third.
When Brooks got the ball back, Lambert zipped a 21-yard pass down the seam to Gibeley, who made a fingertip catch for the go-ahead score. Lambert finished 11 of 15 for 196 yards and the two scores with 163 of those yards on passes completed to Gibeley and Freiermuth.
Foley said, “The throws to Will were huge. He kind of took that first one and turned it into a long touchdown and that gave us a little momentum. Then we were able to connect to him a couple other times. Seamus did a great job to keep the plays alive. It wasn’t like we were great offensively, we just made enough plays.” Freiermuth didn’t register a catch in the first half, but his four grabs in the second half all converted first downs. The Governors simply couldn’t tackle the junior blue chip prospect with one, two and even sometimes three defenders as Freiermuth was able fight his way for some valuable extra yards every time he caught the football.
“I just try to get as many yards as I can,” said Freiermuth, who had a few pancake blocks.
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Football, 10/29/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
NORTH ANDOVER — Seamus Lambert dropped back into the pocket, looked down field and spotted the massive target of Penn State commit Pat Freiermuth breaking free down field.
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Football, 10/21/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
MILTON — Brooks kept it close until midway through the third quarter but Milton Academy had too much offense and prevailed with a 34-19 Independent School League victory Saturday afternoon.
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Football, 10/01/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
EASTHAMPTON — Brooks took a 19-0 first-half lead and held on for a 19-14 win over Canterbury in a game which was played at Williston Northampton.
Nick Konovalchik (26 carries, 140 yards) scored early in the first quarter of the team's season opener and early in the second quarter. Brooks pushed it to 19-0 with 2:02 left in the half as Seamus Lambert found Pat Freiermuth for a 33-yard TD strike.
But Canterbury (1-1-) needed just 50 seconds to answer. The Saints scored again late in the third to cut the margin to 19-14.
But the Brooks defense stood tall behind Will Gibeley (8 tackles), Freiermuth (7 tackles and a sack) and Owen Rosenberger (also 7 tackles, 1 sack).
Brooks is at Milton Academy Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
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Football, 09/24/16 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars
