BEVERLY — Grit was the theme that the Beverly High football coaching staff preached to their players leading up to its season opener against Gloucester.
The Panthers obviously took that message of strength of character to heart.
Coming off of a 1-win campaign, Beverly scored on its first possession Saturday and never buckled the rest of the way, leading to a satisfying 27-14 triumph over the Fishermen on a beautiful day at Hurd Stadium.
“Damn right,” said head coach Jeff Hutton, when told postgame this had to feel good after going 1-10 last fall. “What it does is it justifies all the stuff we’ve been preaching and gives validity to showing up, working hard, and going to the weight room.
“(Grit) is about working hard and not always getting your immediate reward, and that’s what happened today,” he added. “There were some ups and some downs, a rollercoaster ride. But this team has something different we haven’t had the last few years.”
Junior quarterback Danny Pierce, one of three Panther captains, completed 13-of-21 passes for 151 yards and a score while also taking a bootleg up the gut for a 12-yard scoring run of his own. Making smart reads and taking advantage of the matchups presented to him, he had success over the middle with 6-foot-1 Callan McCay (6 catches for 72 yards) as well as outside threats Ray Kwiatek (3-50, TD), a 6-3 speed merchant, and 6-2 senior Liam Timpone (2-18 as well as some nice downfield blocks).
When Beverly went to its ground game, senior Jayden Santos (5 carries, 99 yards) did much of the damage, including a 53-yard sprint around right end that found paydirt and gave the hosts a 20-6 lead in the third quarter.
“We haven’t been resilient (the last few years) and we really had to play with the lead, which we didn’t do much of last year,” admitted Hutton. “So to be in that position (Saturday), if we didn’t have the good senior leadership plus Danny Pierce that we have, we might’ve had that in the back of our minds. But these guys didn’t let that happen. It shows our maturity.”
The game swung for good in the Panthers’ favor immediately before Santos’ touchdown run. Trailing by eight, Gloucester went for it on 4th-and-2 from its own 33 and halfback Jaylen Severino (81 rushing yards) threw a pass to a wide open Carlos Velazquez for a 47-yard gain. But junior cornerback Xavier Auk (“our Mighty Mouse” Hutton said of his team’s best tackler) caught him and not only brought Velazquez down, but also forced a fumble that he then recovered, giving Beverly possession back. Five plays later, Santos was celebrating in the opposite end zone.
“I thought we had a shot there to make a good play and kind of catch them off guard,” said Gloucester head coach Dan O’Connor. “We keep that ball on that drive and keep that momentum, maybe it’s a different story.”
Beverly’s front seven, led by senior captain Jack Consedine on the edge, worked well in mitigating the Fishermen’s Wing-T offense. They didn’t allow any chunk plays between the tackles following a 17-yard pickup by fullback Thomas Cribb’s on the visitors’ second play from scrimmage. They also prevented Severino from breaking free outside the tackles for big gainers.
Linebacker Greg White, another senior who is coming off of a spring knee injury, typified the defense’s effort. “He had his best game inside,” Hutton remarked. “Greg made the right reads, was coming downhill … what we want from the kids.”
About the only negative for Beverly was senior captain and lead running back Roman Sullivan — who missed all of last season recovering from an ACL injury suffered in August 2023 — was hurt late in the first quarter on his fourth touch of the game, and did not return. He watched from the sidelines in the second half while on a pair of crutches.
Cribbs scored for Gloucester on a 3-yard burst to cut Beverly’s lead to 7-6 after each team had the ball once. But Kwiatek got free on the left side and Pierce hit him on play action from 31 yards out early in the second, giving the hosts a 14-6 halftime lead. Santos’ scamper opened things up a bit, and junior tailback Sean Costa’s 1-yard run out of the Wildcat formation helped seal the deal.
Gloucester didn’t stop fighting, though, and scored with 4:27 to play when quarterback Camryn Rodolosi found tight end Gavin Bren over the top for a 27-yard score. The attempted onsides kick, though, was recovered by the Orange-and-Black, who bled all but the last 19 seconds of the game off the clock to earn their first Northeastern Conference victory at Hurd since toppling Salem on Thanksgiving Day in 2021.
The Panthers will hit the road next weekend when they take on host Haverhill Friday (7 p.m.).
“Bring it on; let’s go,” said Hutton. “I don’t think we as coaches need to do anything with this group; they’ve got it. Got the motivation and fire and want to win. They want to get this thing going in the right direction. We just have to fine-tune and have a great game plan ready for them.”
Beverly 27, Gloucester 14
at Hurd Stadium, Beverly
Gloucester (0-1);6;0;0;8;14
Beverly (1-0);7;7;6;7;27
Scoring summary
B — Danny Pierce 12 run (Maverick Genest kick)
G — Thomas Cribbs 3 run (kick failed)
B — Ray Kwiatek 31 pass from Pierce (Genest kick)
B — Jayden Santos 53 run (kick failed)
B — Sean Costa 1 run (Genest kick)
G — Gavin Bren 27 pass from Camryn Rodolosi (Jaylen Severino pass from Rodolosi)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Gloucester — Jaylen Severino 11-81, Joe Allen 10-51, Thomas Cribbs 6-21, Joe Gucciardi 5-15, Camryn Rodolosi 4-10; Beverly — Jayden Santos 5-99, Danny Pierce 5-19, Sean Costa 13-12, Roman Sullivan 3-6, Floyd White 1-(-2).
PASSING: Gloucester — Rodolosi 3-6-56-1-0; Severino 1-1-47-0-0; Beverly — Pierce 13-21-151-1-0; Ray Kwiatek 1-2-9-0-0.
RECEIVING: Gloucester — Carlos Velazquez 1-47, Gavin Bren 1-27, Severino 1-20, Cribbs 1-9; Beverly — Callan McCay 6-72, Kwiatek 3-50, Liam Timpone 2-18, Sullivan 1-10, Cole Fowler 1-9, Santos 1-6, White 1-(-4).