NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA

Sports

October 22, 2007

Clippers sting Hornets

NORTH READING - Newburyport coach Ed Gaudiano was already thinking about possible punishments for his team's penalty problems.

"We are going to remind them in various ways to avoid penalties (next week)," said the coach with a sly smirk.

The coach had room to joke a bit.

Despite 11 penalties for a whopping 95 yards, Newburyport still managed to dominate North Reading to the tune of 14-0 Saturday afternoon.

"We had too many penalties, and we shot ourselves in the foot for a while," said Gaudiano. "But they were penalties of aggression that can be fixed. And we kept plugging away."

Clippers quarterback Joseph Clancy more than made up for his teams miscues. The junior was 12 of 22 passing for 165 yards and threw touchdown passes to Andrew Sokol (22 yards) and Chris Barry (11 yards). Clancy is 56 of 96 passing for an area-best 999 yards and 15 touchdowns for the year.

"He is really hitting his stride," said Gaudiano. "He had two touchdown passes. When things aren't going well we can rely on him to get some momentum going."

Ashlyn Calcagni led the Clippers with five catches for 83 yards. Barry added three catches for 44 yards and Sokol had four grabs for 38 yards.

Justin Burl led the rushing attack with 97 yards on 18 carries. For the season he has rushed 122 times for 582 yards.

The Newburyport defense made the two scores stand up with a dominant performance, allowing the Hornets only 48 yards of total offense. For the season they have allowed only 81 points, the fewest in the league.

Barry led the way with five tackles while Samuel Melanson added three and Darren Wright had two tackles and a sack.

Sokol also made an impact on defense, intercepting North Reading QB James Campbell (3 for 9, 23 yards) twice. The second came with just over a minute left and locked up the contest.

"We know North Reading is capable of moving the ball," said Gaudiano. "It's important to win a game like this because for three quarters they were one pass away. But we shut the door."

The win was the third straight for the Clippers, who are now 2-0 in the Cape Ann League Small.

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