The Fishermen football team had a great start to the season last Friday with a triumphant victory over the Beverly Panthers.
Beverly came into Newell Stadium with high hopes and a strong team. The upperclassmen-heavy group is full of experienced leaders and talented athletes. Beverly’s defense initially failed to stop the Fishermen’s advance on the first drive. But a mix of strong secondary and penalties from the Fishermen would lead to a defiant stop on 4th down to turn the ball over into the hands of Beverly’s Daniel Pierce. Capitalizing on this, the Panthers would march down the field into the second quarter and take the lead 7-0 on a breakaway touchdown by senior captain Sean Costa.
Gloucester would have the ball twice during the second quarter, finding themselves in the red zone on one of the drives, but were unable to strike back and get on the board. At the half, Beverly held a 7-0 lead.
Strong halftime adjustments would allow the Fishermen’s defense to live up to its potential, with interior defensive linemen Kaleb Allen and Max Thomas clearing the path for Thomas Cribbs to work his magic and stuff running backs in the backfield for key losses. On the opening drive of the half, the Fishermen would shut Beverly’s offense down, forcing a punt. Unfortunately for the Fishermen, they would be pinned at the 1-yard line.
But a strong run game by the multi-headed backfield—commandeered by Thomas Cribbs and Joseph Allen and mixed with a string of penalties by the Panthers—would allow the Fishermen to march 99 yards and score their first touchdown on a run by Cribbs to shift the momentum. Subsequently, the Fishermen would make the bold move to try for the lead with a 2-point conversion as opposed to a PAT. Luckily for the Fishermen faithful, Allen would run in for a score to give the Fishermen the lead, 8-7.
Beverly would fail to score on the subsequent drive, thanks in part to a sack by Max Thomas. This put the Panthers far enough behind the sticks to make for an uncomfortable 4th down from 11 yards out, from which they failed to convert. An attempt to run the clock down would lead to another rushing touchdown by Cribbs, added to by an extra point from Jaylen Severino to make the score 15-7. While Beverly would get the ball with less than a minute left, they would not be able to put together a scoring drive as the clock ran down for the Fishermen’s first victory of the season.
The Fishermen will travel to Falmouth next Saturday for their second game of the regular season.
