IPSWICH — The Manchester Essex football squad has been making some noise in recent weeks with their newly established quarterback/receiver duo — and they would continue to ride that wave Friday night in Ipswich.
In what was a dominant performance from start to finish, Hornets’ senior signal caller Zach Hurd and his sophomore backup turned wideout, Nick Glass, connected for a number of impressive plays to lead their team to a convincing 38-6 road victory.
The all of a sudden deadly combo — which debuted two weeks ago when Glass was thrust into action as a pass catcher due to injuries — was simply too much for the Tigers. Hurd threw for two touchdowns and 226 total yards, with 188 of those and a score going to Glass in the win.
“(Manchester) has a really, really, really good quarterback that’s been starting for four years now, and I’m happy that kid’s graduating,” Ipswich head coach Zack Lamkin said after the loss. “He throws well, he moves well, he’s really tough to defend … a week watching film on him is a scary thing.”
The opening drive looked promising for the Tigers, but a fumble would give the Hornets the ball and that’s where the Hurd-Glass connection would begin.
The two would immediately connect for a 71-yard play out of the gate, setting up an 11-yard touchdown for Adam Macleod. The senior receiver found himself wide open on a seam route and Hurd hit him with a dime in the end zone.
Early in the second quarter, the Tigers faced a 4th-and-7, which they could not convert and Manchester took over again.
The visitors would take advantage, with Conrad Garfield running it in from 20 yards out to make it 14-0 early.
On the ensuing possession, Garfield would come up with an interception off Tigers’ QB Vin Winter and Hurd would take the next snap to the house from 42 yards out.
The Tigers, however, would put some points on the board before halftime with a QB sneak from Winter to stop the damage — for the moment — going into the break down 20-6.
The Hornets’ Hurd-led offense wouldn’t relent in the final two frames, though, and Manchester won going away.
“I thought it went really well; it’s always good to come out on that side of a scoreboard for sure,” Manchester Essex head coach Joe Grimes said. “This is our first game of the season in our actual league, so getting a good league win is always awesome and I’m glad we were able to come away with this one.”
Hurd found Glass again for an 18-yard touchdown on 4th-and-long in the third, a score that deflated the Ipswich crowd. He then put the game on ice with a run of his own from 20 yards for his second rushing touchdown of the night and that just about did it.
Hurd finished with seven rushes for 97 yards while completing 12 of his 14 passes for the big night through the air. His sensational play helped Manchester improve to 4-1 on the season, solidifying themselves as one of the top teams in Division 7.
“I thought we executed well on offense. We were hoping we could control the game from the offensive side and not worry defensively, just trying to put up a lot of points, and hopefully they couldn’t catch up,” Grimes said.
Glass added a 24-yard field goal late in action to supplant the scoring.
Ipswich, meanwhile, would fall to 1-4 on the year while they were down a couple of key players Friday night.
“We were down a lot of guys, three of our top five players,” said Lamkin. “It’s tough at a small school doing something like that, but I thought the kids that we had out there played really tough.”
Despite being down key players, the Tigers were able to take some positives out of the loss, with players playing different positions and some younger players stepping in.
“I thought we actually played a pretty decent game. They just didn’t make many mistakes,” Lamkin said.
“All in all, I’m not too upset at the way we played, we had a lot of new guys out there and a lot of new guys in different positions, shifting everything around,” added Lamkin. “I think another week of practice and getting that under our belt would probably be good for us.”
Manchester Essex 38, Ipswich 6
at Jack Welch Stadium, Ipswich
Manchester Essex (4-1);8;12;8;10;38
Ipswich (1-4);0;6;0;0;6
Scoring summary
M — Adam Macleod 11 pass from Zach Hurd (Nick Glass rush)
M — Conrad Garfield 20 rush (rush failed)
M — Hurd 42 yard rush (rush failed)
I — Vin Winter 3 yard rush (rush failed)
M — Glass 18 pass from Hurd (Garfield rush)
M — Hurd 20 rush (Glass kick)
M — Glass 24 field goal
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Manchester Essex — Zach Hurd 7-97, Conrad Garfield 8-43, David Broadbent 2-13, Charlie Thurlow 2-9; Ipswich — Pace Capone 7-40, James Dick 12-33, Ethan Boleski 5-26, Vin Winter 4-9, JD Greenleaf 2-9, Cullen Courville 1-2.
PASSING: Manchester Essex — Hurd 12-14-226-2-0; Ipswich — Winter 3-7-57-0-1.
RECEIVING: Manchester Essex— Nick Glass 6-188, Thurlow 3-16, Adam Macleod 3-14, Connor St.Laurent 1-13; Ipswich — Sawyer Gromko 2-57, Dick 1-0.