HAVERHILL — For a while, it looked like the first team to get a defensive stop would win the battle between Methuen and Haverhill High on Friday night.
Coming out of the halftime, Haverhill coach Rob Pike just eliminated the middle man, keying the Hillies’ 40-34 victory over the Rangers.
Haverhill’s successful onside kick to open the third quarter set up Michael Bayko’s second touchdown pass of the night, this one to George Papanikolau, giving the Hillies a two-score lead at 33-21.
“We have a kicker who is very good at it (Leo Butcher-Gonzalez), and it was shootout, so we thought the opportunity was there for us,” said Pike, who noted that Lucas Perez came up with the recovery.
The work was nowhere near done, though.
Methuen answered with a 30-yard Caiden-Hartley DiDio TD run, his third score of the night to cut it back to 33-27.
The teams, as they did the entire first half, traded TDs again, making it 40-34.
Haverhill looked for the kill, driving inside the 10, but the Rangers showed their mettle with the stop with just over two minutes left.
“We trusted our guys on defense to make plays when we needed it,” said Pike. “Finally we were able to make that stop.”
Abram Temple, Lucas Perez and Ethan Jalbert anchored the Haverhill defense.
Perez stepped up on offense as well with a pair of running TDs.
“We lost (fullback) Patrick Hildonen, and Lucas stepped in nicely,” said Pike. “He was great, and the offensive line did a good job in front of him.”
Bayko finished with three TD passes in the win. Jay DeJesus ran for one score and pulled in a 20-yard corner route from Bayko for the other.
For the Rangers, the frustration continues in close ball games. Methuen, now 2-5, has played playoff-bound teams like Andover, North Andover and Tewksbury tough, but could be on the outside looking in come November.
The Rangers will need to go on the road and beat 6-1 Billerica on Friday night to reach the Division 1 playoffs.