RallyNorth.net

Fri, Sep 15, 2006 07:00 PM @ Amesbury

Team	Final
Lawrence	6
Amesbury	26

Lawrence takes step back...Lancers no match for Amesbury

Wednesday, August, 22 By Bob Albright
Staff writer

AMESBURY | After playing an inspired game against cross town rival and Merrimack Valley League power Central Catholic last week, Lawrence coach Mike Yameen was more than a little disappointed with his team's effort in last night's 26-6 loss to Amesbury.

"It was like apples and oranges," said Yameen about the disparity between the two performances. "I don't know where the effort was that we had last week. It's very frustrating. This team gets up for games like Greater Lawrence and Central Catholic, but what I'm trying to instill in them is that you have to get up for everyone each week and I don't think they did that tonight."

For Amesbury, it was worth the wait. Idle for the first week of the season, the Indians proved that practice does indeed make perfect last night.

"This obviously feels really good," said Amesbury coach Thom Connors. "We weren't perfect but after the way that we had to start last season, to come out and get a win in our first game was really big."

Freshman Marion Wilder had a terrific debut with 78 yards rushing and two touchdowns and senior quarterback Joe Klufts ran for another two scores.

Lancer quarterback William Carrasco sprinted in from nine yards out with under a minute to play to ruin the Indians' shut out bid.

Leading 12-0 at the break, Wilder busted a counter up the middle with 33 seconds to play in the third to effectively ice the game.

"The thing I liked most about Marion tonight was the effort," said Connors. "His effort and his balance were terrific and the nice thing is that we have him for the next four years."

That effort was on display on the defensive side of the ball too as Wilder ran down Lancer wide receiver Demitri Brown, who was off to the races on a 56-yard pass play, on the 9-yard line to prevent a score on the last play of the third quarter.

The first half gave fans a early glimpse at just what kind of speed this Amesbury team brings to the field.

On the opening kickoff, sophomore Kevin Johnston took the ball right down the Amesbury sidelines, broke two tackles at the 40, and raced into the end zone for an apparent score, only to see the play called back for holding.

Amesbury would instead take the ball over at its own 43 and marched smartly on seven plays for their first TD of the year when Klufts rolled to his right from five yards out and hurdled over the one Lancer on his way for the score.

Lawrence simply couldn't hold on to the ball in the first half, fumbling the ball three times and losing all three.