By David Willis
staff writer
November 02, 2009 03:59 am READING — A year ago, Pentucket was on the wrong end of the upset of the year, falling to tiny North Reading on opening day. This season, led by a pair of surprise stars, the Sachems exacted their revenge. In the first start of his varsity career, Peter Koopman rushed for two first-half touchdowns, and offensive backup Mike Brennan added another pair of scores as Pentucket downed the Hornets 34-3 yesterday at Reading High. "It was good to get a little revenge for last year," said Brennan after the Sachems' fifth win in six games. "There was a little extra (motivation). And it was a good win after a tough, tough game against Wilmington (31-7 loss) last Friday." Entering the day with just six career varsity carries for 56 yards, Koopman, a senior, ran wild against the Hornets. "I was a little nervous," he said. "But it was a good nervous. I had always hoped I would get the chance to play offense one day." On just his second carry of the game, Koopman scored on a 33-yard run, the first TD of his varsity career. Three carries later, he dodged two defenders and sprinted away for a 65-yard score that ended the second quarter. He finished the first half with 110 yards on just five rushes, and carried only twice in the second half as the backups came onto the field. That marked just the second 100-plus yard rushing game for the run-happy Sachems this season, trailing just Nolan Dragon's 113 against then-winless Hamilton-Wenham. In total, 10 Sachems carried the ball for a combined 307 yards yesterday. "Words can't describe the day I had," said Koopman, who survived cancer his freshman year. "Once I ran for that first touchdown, it gave me a little more confidence. And as the game went on I got more comfortable in the offense, and my teammates around me." Just as dynamic was quad-captain Brennan. Entering the day with just six carries for 13 yards over the last two-plus seasons, the backup quarterback/receiver took a reverse, flew past the defense and scampered 25 yards for a touchdown. "We put the reverse in this week," said Brennan. "It worked pretty good. We tried a couple of different things." He closed out Pentucket's scoring, using his impressive speed to run down a long pass from QB Mike Doud and sprint 49 yards for a score — the first pass reception of his varsity career. One possession later, he squashed North Reading's drive by recovering a fumble. The Sachems held North Reading to just 148 yards of total offense. Of that, 57 of those yards — and the field goal that broke up the shutout — came on the final drive of the game. Bob Rosano led the Hornets with 61 yards rushing on 13 carries.
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