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
