AMESBURY — It’s done now. Over. Finished. Put the fries in the bag.
Nobody should feel the need to ever ponder or ask the question again.
“Oh, gee, I wonder if Amesbury and North Reading will have another classic football game this year?”
… Yeah, dummy, of course they will!
But the new question following Friday’s latest installment for the history books between the Redhawks and Hornets is a simple one.
How?
How is it that Amesbury was once again able to win a heavyweight battle of unbeatans, holding on to take down North Reading, 30-28, on Senior Night at Landry Memorial Stadium? How is it that over the last five years now, these two teams have met with a combined 26-3 record between them, yet Amesbury has won all five games by a combined score of 150-137? How has little old ground and pound, “Bury Ball” Amesbury been able to keep up with a much larger, athletic, high-flying and Super Bowl-winning North Reading program and win every time?
The Redhawks did it again.
Just … how?
“Man, can I say luck,” laughed Amesbury coach Colin McQueen when trying to answer that question. “We’ve got the most respect for North Reading and Coach (Ed) Blum and how they do things, their entire staff. They’re an incredibly well-coached team, and they have tough competitors. It just comes down to guys making plays when they have to. And a lot of it is to shorten the game against teams that are that athletic. I mean, you saw how fast they scored in the fourth quarter.”
Senior quarterback Justin Dube provided a similar answer: “I’ve got the best teammates and coaches in the world. Honestly, it just comes down to that. We’re so focused, we play as a team. So yeah, this was a great team win.”
— Three onside kicks recovered.
— A combined 33 points in the fourth quarter alone.
— An 0-for-5 night on conversion attempts.
Still the final score: Amesbury 30, North Reading 28.
It’s a victory that keeps the Redhawks (6-0) perfect on the season, and puts them firmly in the driver’s seat for the Cape Ann League title. But perhaps more importantly, the Redhawks came into the game ranked No. 1 in the latest MIAA Division 7 power poll, and wanted to cement that status with another signature win over the Hornets (5-1) — who are No. 5 in Division 5.
Safe to say, that top overall ranking was stamped.
“We’re No. 1, but we’re never satisfied,” said Dube. “We’re No. 1 for right now, but we have to keep that going. We’re never satisfied, and we saw like the (Boston) Globe pick North Reading (to win) and a couple other people picked North Reading. So, we always have that chip on our shoulder and we’re always able to prove people wrong.”
The fireworks took a little bit, but they eventually came.
Amesbury opened the scoring on the second play of the second quarter, when Dube rolled out to his right and hit Ben Wood for an 8-yard touchdown. The Redhawks didn’t convert a single 2-point conversion all night, and North Reading would take its only lead of the game when senior QB Jason Berry found top target Gavin Brady behind the defense for a 42-yard strike. But Connor Scialdone would burst up the middle for an 8-yard TD, then Wood tackled North Reading back Otto Indelicato short of the goal on the final play of the half to keep the Redhawks ahead 12-7 at the break.
Needless to say, that goal-line stand proved to be huge.
Opening the third quarter with the ball, Amesbury got behind an offensive line of Dylan Palen, Evan Murphy, Braden Delisle, Gino DiLorenzo, Stacy Peck Jr. and Christian Iandolo and put together a 14-play drive that took up over nine minutes. It would end with Dube hitting Joe Celia on another 8-yard touchdown, but North Reading would respond on the opening play of the fourth quarter with a 4-yard Indelicato TD to bring it back to 18-13.
And that’s really when the madness started.
Amesbury recovered its first onside kick of the night, and on the very next play, it was the junior Scialdone (17-115-2) diving up the middle and breaking away for a 49-yard touchdown. To its massive credit, though, North Reading was clutch. On the ensuing drive, the Hornets would convert a 4th-and-16 with a 21-yard pass from Berry to Brady, then on a 4th-and-goal from the 10, the two would convert again on a fade to the endzone to make it 24-21 with five minutes left. The hands team successfully recovered its second onside kick for Amesbury, but two plays later, it faced a 3rd-and-13.
That, however, is when McQueen turned to the back page of his playbook.
“(The play) was quarterback-trey-left,” said Dube. “A great call by my coach, and a great block by Stacy Peck. Then I was just able to outrun everybody.”
In an ultra-rare scene for Amesbury, Dube lined up out of the shotgun on the 3rd-and-13 with three receivers wide, and took the snap before faking the handoff to Joe Puleo. The QB would then tuck it and run around his left tackle Peck, and nobody was able to catch up on his 59-yard sprint to the endzone. It’s a play that the Redhawks have practiced for years, but have never pulled out in an actual game.
Let alone one of this magnitude.
“We’ve been practicing that for years, but yeah I haven’t called it,” said McQueen. “I think it was Parker (DeLong) who said it to me on the sideline, he goes, ‘Coach, you went deep into the bag for that one.’ But yeah, it happened. And when you have a playmaker like No. 2 (Dube), I’d be stupid not to keep the ball in his hands.”
Of course, North Reading wasn’t going away. In about 70 seconds, the Hornets would drive down the field again and get a 21-yard TD run from Berry, making it 30-28 with just over two minutes left. But their third onside kick attempt would bounce out of bounds, and Scialdone picked up a first down before Dube was able to take two snaps out of victory formation.
Now, Amesbury won’t see Landry Stadium again until it hosts archrival Newburyport on Thanksgiving Day. Only two road games stand between the Redhawks and an undefeated regular season, with the first one coming next week against Ipswich.
And the Redhawks should make that drive with a No. 1 next to their name.
“Ultimately we always just want to win the next one,” said McQueen. “But I’ll tell you what, for us we knew this was a playoff atmosphere. (North Reading) is a team that’s going to go deep in the playoffs themselves. These are the types of talents that we’re going to have to line up against if we want to go on a deep run. So it’s a little preview of that.”
Amesbury 30, North Reading 28
North Reading (5-1): 0 7 0 21 — 28
Amesbury (6-0): 0 12 6 12 — 30
Second Quarter
A — Ben Wood 8 pass from Justin Dube (run failed), 11:01
NR — Gavin Brady 42 pass from Jason Berry (Xander Villarroel kick), 9:09
A — Connor Scialdone 8 run (run failed), 1:47
Third Quarter
A — Joe Celia 8 pass from Dube (run failed), 2:53
Fouth Quarter
NR — Otto Indelicato 4 run (pass failed), 11:54
A — Scialdone 49 run (run failed), 11:00
NR — Brady 10 pass from Berry (Brady run), 5:16
A — Dube 59 run (run failed), 3:21
NR — Berry 21 run (Villarroel kick), 2:17
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: AMESBURY (43-230): Connor Scialdone 17-115, Justin Dube 11-67, Joe Puleo 7-25, Joe Celia 7-22, Ben Wood 1-1; NORTH READING (23-138): Jason Berry 9-98, Otto Indelicato 14-40
PASSING: A — Dube 4-4-2-0, 59; NR — Berry 15-23-2-0, 182
RECEIVING: A — Celia 2-35, Ollie Peters 1-16, Wood 1-8; NR — Gavin Brady 9-143, Colin Brady 3-24, Nick Torra 1-13, Indelicato 1-2, Ian Baker 1-0