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NORTH ANDOVER — Growing up here in town, they heard, and even often read in these sports pages, all those not-so-subtle-but-still-sassy little cracks about playing in the Cape Ann League.

About the softer competition, and all those quaint little road trips to tiny bergs like Ipswich, Hamilton and yes, even Manchester-by-the-Sea.

Nobody is snickering now, at least not in the Merrimack Valley Conference.

North Andover High, once the beast of the tiny CAL, is beating up the big boys here in the Merrimack Valley Conference.

Golf wrapped up a title this week, both soccer teams are in the hunt as they prep for the upcoming sectional tourneys and here come the Knights of the gridiron, who spanked Methuen High, 35-0, last night in the drizzle at Walsh Stadium.

"Yeah, for years we've heard all that stuff, and it's tough," said North Andover junior Matt Iannone. "We're just very fortunate that we are the group that got to bring our game to a new league, to show what we can do at one of the highest levels."

In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, North Andover is 2-0 in MVC and even knocked off Chelmsford for good measure a week ago.

The Knights are playing with a chip on their shoulder as they probably should.

"As a team, the whole mission is to show these guys we're tough," said senior halfback Nick Oswald. "We came from a league not as high as the MVC, but we can play. We have guys who love it as much as we do. We all just want to have success here in the MVC. That's all we've been aiming for."

For years, the folks here had to defend the CAL. Now, the Knights are punishing the opposition for chiming in.

Oswald did the majority of the damage last night, carving up a Methuen defense with 201 yards and 5 TDs on 28 carries over the wet, but still fast artificial track.

"You expect with the rain and it being harder to catch the ball, to see a little more ground and pound," said Oswald. "It was great, the blocking was fantastic. Methuen's a heck of a team, they were playing their hearts out."

Coming in, Oswald had gained just 412 yards, but his ability to skewer the Ranger defense was evident from the get-go, when he dashed 32 yards to paydirt on the Knights opening possession.

Iannone can cover fellas: What did the Rangers see that they kept attacking Iannone, the junior defensive back.

Sure, he had a pretty darn good receiver running routes against him in Ranger Colin Langford, but Iannone, younger brother of last year's North Andover rushing leader John Iannone, simply hung tough in deny mode.

"I tried my best," said Iannone, who saw Langford catch three balls for 42 yards. "Watching him all week on tape, we had a bunch of different coverage. I liked our matchup. I think we were able to limit him. I embraced it. After the first couple plays, you realize what the game-plan is ... and you just play."

For the night, in one of those classic, often one-on-one, head-to-head battles, Iannone persevered and prospered in this one.

The slick junior Langford finished with a team-best three catches for 38 yards, but Iannone registered four breakups with an interception.

Ranger rap: Methuen did move the football well behind QB Austin George-Williams but simply faltered deep in North Andover territory. George-Williams hit on 9 of 24 passes for 113 yards. Will Weinhold caught two balls for 35 yards and ran hard with limited room between the tackles.