SAUGUS — The second week of football is officially over in the River Rival Region; and though it's still not officially fall yet, the draining, and once avoidable, act of digging yourself out of a hole is not an early season predicament any team craves.
However, such is the case for the Newburyport football team, which, despite finding the offensive touch for the first time on Saturday morning, was again denied its first victory of the season by non-league foe Saugus, 35-32, at Stackpole Field in Saugus.
"It was kind of like a track meet," said Newburyport High coach Ed Gaudiano, whose statement perfectly mirrored a matchup of two teams whose offensive efficiency balanced one another's like a wire-walker. Both teams went down the fields in droves, with the contest featuring only a pair of punts — both by Newburyport in the second half.
The game started off favorably for the Clippers when on the opening play Newburyport quarterback Joe Clancy found wideout Kyle LeBlanc streaking down the right side of the field, pulling in the 37-yard haul, which inevitably — and shortly thereafter — led to LeBlanc rushing from nine yards out for the touchdown. The Clippers only executed one point-after-touchdown (PAT) attempt — a 2-point conversion — of the five touchdowns.
Saugus answered back with a five-minute drive of its own, thanks to an assortment of runs from quarterback Brett Reid and fullback Mike Dean, the latter of whom barreled in for the score. The Sachems converted the PAT, and went up 7-6.
Newburyport looked fresh, though, and before the first quarter ended the Clippers managed to put the ball in the end zone on a fourth-and-3 after a series of completions to LeBlanc and wide receiver Andrew Sokol. Clancy found LeBlanc for the Clippers' second score, but again, Newburyport botched the extra point attempt, and after one Newburyport led 12-7.
The Sachems responded right back at the start of the second with a six-minute drive — nearly all rushes — that was capitalized by Reid running into the end zone and regaining the lead, 14-12.
The first half see-saw affair wasn't quite over yet when after a sweet 26-yard run from LeBlanc, Clancy rushed in for the touchdown. The Clippers recorded the two-point conversion when Clancy floated one to LeBlanc in the corner, and the Clippers went into the half with a 20-14 advantage.
Once the second half began, things started getting a little nerve-wracking for Newburyport.
Saugus had just finished another successful four-minute scoring drive, going back up 21-20, when LeBlanc went down. Gaudiano said after the game that it was cramping, but LeBlanc, who notched 104 yards in the first half (35 rushing, 69 receiving), was missing in action for the remainder of the game.
Things were getting worse before they were getting any better, so when Clancy punted away possession, it seemed guaranteed that the Sachems were poised to rumble seven more points on the board. However, after a Sachem-missed catch, Newburyport senior Corey Ruane scrambled in for the recovery at the Saugus 20-yard-line, putting the Clippers back into action.
Clancy hooked up with Sokol on a three-yard touchdown pass, but again, the extra points were amiss and the Clippers went ahead 26-21.
As the third quarter rolled to an end, the Sachems managed to crash their way deep into Newburyport territory, and when the fourth commenced, Dean steamrolled in for a 17-yard score.
With the score 28-26 Saugus, the Clippers were forced to punt, and though Clancy's boot made its way to the Saugus 9, another six-minute Sachem drive punctuated by a 43-yard touchdown run by Dean pushed the boys in red up 35-26, and seemingly out of harm's way.
The Clippers now had desperation on their side, but unfortunately nothing else. However, Clancy and company rallied late, and turned a one-minute scoring drive into three-point deficit when the senior quarterback found Sokol for a 25-yard connection.
Despite the Clipper resolve, the game, on the backs of Saugus rushers Dean, Reid and Shamir Guillaume, continued to collect first downs (the Sachems had 375 rushing yards to their 54 passing yards), and eventually kneeled the game into oblivion.
"It was a good high school football game," said Gaudiano. "I told the kids that the difference in the game was the extra points. If we had played the extra points, we would have won the game."
The role of a field goal kicker and a calm snapper never seemed so important.
"We need to work on our PAT snaps, and that threw us off a couple of times. We just didn't execute," said Gaudiano. "We put in a good week of work and we went off on offense pretty well and defensively we did the things to stop the triple option.
"But I think they were a little better than us up front, seeing as how they were able to run the fullback in the second half," said Gaudiano, "That hurt because that took a lot of clock away from us.
Though his team seemed to be finally gaining some offensive momentum, Gaudiano stressed to his players that a beautiful loss is nothing compared to an ugly victory.
"I told these guys that as far as I'm concerned, there aren't any moral victories."
Football Photos
For a photo slideshow from this weekend's local football games, visit www.newburyportnews.com.
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