WAKEFIELD — With all 11 Wakefield Warriors laser-focused on Gustavo Varela’s No. 4, it was clear early that the Greater Lawrence Tech offense would be asked to diversify on opening night.
And for one half, they did just that, taking a 13-7 lead into halftime.
But Wakefield was up to the task in the third quarter, turning that six-point hole into a 28-13 Warrior victory, disappointing the upset-minded Reggies.
“They planned their whole defense to spill all their guys at him. They did a very good job with that,” said Greater Lawrence Tech coach Tony Sarkis, after watching Wakefield hold the amazing Varela to just 57 yards on 16 carries. “We have to throw the ball better. We have to play better.
“We had some guys wide open that dropped the ball. Sometimes (QB Zion Padilla) didn’t get it to them. We have to be more consistent. We have to be able to throw the ball so we can help (Varela) out too. That’s the balance we came in this year thinking we needed.”
The pass game worked best in the second quarter when the Reggies went from down 7-0 to up 13-7.
Padilla hit a wide-open Varela on a wheel-route for 80 yards and one TD. With time running out in the half Padilla connected with Angel Gonzalez on a 13-yard TD. For the half, Padilla was 5 of 6 for 143 yards.
But Wakefield made the adjustments at halftime, and the Reggie execution ran into a few bumps in the road.
Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, it was 28-13, leaving some heads to be scratched on the GLT sideline.
“We thought we would come in here and out-physical them. They basically beat the crap out of us,” said Sarkis. “That’s not Greater Lawrence football. We have to rise to it. We have to learn how to play to that level of competition.”