BEVERLY — Rob Pike did not want the focus on him. He placed it solely on his players.
It was the members of his Haverhill High football team who, after all, shot out to a 20-point lead on host Beverly Saturday at Hurd Stadium before the contest was 14 minutes old. The Hillies eventually rolled up 455 yards of offense and 23 first downs to give Pike his first victory as head coach, 27-14 over the Panthers in the opening game for both squads.
“It feels good,” said Pike, a Haverhill football alum whose father, Bob, formerly coached the Hillies. “The kids came out, faced a little adversity in the second half, but they fought through it. They should be proud of themselves.”
The visitors won the battle up front, moving up and down the field with ease for the majority of the first half while jumping out to a big lead they never relinquished.
Junior quarterback James Farrell had a big day, throwing for 229 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Both of those went to Devin Carreiro, who hauled in eight passes for 142 yards. He caught a 5-yard score to get the scoring started on the Hillies’ opening series (following a successful fake punt that went for a 55-yard pass from Alexander Gomes to Jayden Brito); the other a 42-yard post pattern that found Carreiro wide open.
Carreiro also had two of his team’s three interceptions.
“We executed well, and that’s a credit to the guys,” Pike said of his team’s first half play. “Farrell can really spin it; he’s a great player. Devin’s a great player, Sebastien (Guillame, a wideout) is a great player … we’ve got a lot of good receivers and a kid who can really throw it.”
Burly running back Jhonaton Wallis ran for a game-high 96 yards and two scores of his own, from 12 and 2 yards out, respectively.
Beverly saw two of its three senior captains, QB Brian Kessel and slot man Danny Conant, connect on touchdown passes of 53 and 25 yards. But both of those touchdowns came with the hosts trailing by three scores.
“We made some first game mistakes that a young team is bound to make,” said Beverly head coach Jeff Hutton. “There were some bad reads, running the wrong play, over-pursuing instead of staying with the right angles. “But those weren’t because of lack of effort; that was the kids just trying to do too much to do what they thought would help.”
Pike, who was hired in February to replace 13-year head coach Tim O’Connor after the latter had been placed on administrative leave following ongoing investigations into hazing incidents within the program, praised his crew.
“They’re all special,” said Pike, asked about it being particularly special to win his first-ever game at his alma mater. “But it’s about them (his team). For these guys, it’s their first game of the 2023 season.”