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Rough start dooms Whittier

Saturday, October, 24 By David Willis
Staff writer

HAVERHILL — The start could not have gone any worse for Whittier.

Essex Tech broke a long touchdown on the second play of the game, then after blocking a punt scored two plays later. The Hawks were in control from there, downing the Wildcats 28-0 on Saturday.

"We just started too slowly," said Whittier coach Kevin Bradley. "We came out and gave up 14 points so fast and that's going to hurt you every time. First quarters have been killing us every game. We start too slowly."

With the loss the Wildcats fell to 2-5 while Commonwealth Conference Small foe Essex Tech improved to 4-3.

Whittier's best chance to get on the board came near halftime. Hunter McKinnon lunged to bring in a pass in the end zone, but he was ruled out of bounds. The Wildcats drove into the red zone on their second drive of the second half, set up by a pass from Bradley's son, Kevin Bradley, to McKinnon. But they were once again turned away without points.

"One play here and there always seemed to hurt us," said Bradley. "We would hold them or start to drive, but then we would just make one play to give up a first down and it would hurt us. We just couldn't make the big play."

Bright spots for Whittier were the linebacker play of Marcus Cellamare and Shane Mambro. Cellamare made 12 tackles including a sack and four for a loss. Mambro made eight stops and returned a kickoff 62 yards. Brendan Farrell also delivered a huge hit.

"We didn't give up," said Bradley the coach. "But we need to be consistent. Lack of consistency is killing us.
"We have to get a win. We have to make something good happen. We are fighting and I think we can do it. We just need to steal a win and do something positive."