It’s not very often that a football team receives a bye week following their first game of the season.
But that’s exactly what Manchester Essex endured this fall after opening its campaign with an impressive road win at West Bridgewater two Fridays ago.
Now, after a lengthy yet expected layoff, the Hornets are eager to get back on the grind and continue what they hope will be a successful year back in the Cape Ann League. Head coach Joe Grimes says his group hasn’t missed a beat, locking in at practice this week as they gear up for their next meaningful challenge: tonight’s home opener against Rockland at Hyland Field (6:30 p.m.).
“This week was always going to feel like the preseason start again,” admitted Grimes. “The first game was going to feel like a scrimmage and now we just want to play football again.”
“A bye week is very unusual for us, but coming off the West Bridgewater game, we carried a lot of energy throughout our practices,” added junior quarterback Zach Hurd, who rushed for a game-high 161 yards in the Week 1 win. “Overall the bye week gave us extra time to watch film and prepare for Rockland. The guys have been looking extremely focused and can’t wait to get out there tomorrow.”
The expectation is that Hyland Field we be rockin’ for the home opener. It’s “Junior Hornets Night”, meaning the youth football and youth cheerleading programs will be in attendance with a special tunnel entrance for the team slated to unfold before kickoff. That, coupled with a Beverly Bootstraps food drive should only boost the atmosphere at the tightknit, state of the art facility.
“We love our little stadium and love all our fans that come out,” added Grimes. “We pack the house and love seeing all the kids come out on our first Friday; we always get a great crowd and we’re looking forward to it.”
While Manchester’s season opening triumph down south may have felt like a ‘scrimmage’, it was anything but. Rather, it was a competitive affair against a worthy Division 7 foe, one that took a gutsy fourth quarter scoring drive and subsequent defensive stand to seal the deal.
Hurd led that game-winning drive under center and capped it off with a 2-yard touchdown plunge, his second score of the night. That gave the Hornets a 22-15 lead, and the defense did a phenomenal job to keep the hosts out of the end zone from there to preserve the victory.
In a game that certainly featured some first half rust as Manchester dusted off the cobwebs in their return to live action, Grimes couldn’t have been happier with the way his squad responded in crunch time to head into the bye on a much more positive note.
“We were a little rusty to begin with but the game was really close, back and forth, and the thing that stood out to me the most was that we really came through with an offensive drive and big defensive stop to end the game,” said Grimes. “We were competitive, didn’t make any mental or rust based mistakes during the final quarter, and really kept our composure in that fourth which was great to see.”
The narrow decision undoubtedly altered the team’s mindset for the better with the off week looming thereafter. They spent last week focusing on conditioning, staying healthy (which they did) and breaking down film, before diving back into the nitty gritty full throttle beginning this past Monday.
It would’ve been easy for the team to lose focus considering the rare timing of their bye, but thanks to some great leadership and a collective will to hone in on the task at hand, the Hornets remained ready to go for Week 3.
“It was a nice little surprise that they came in really focused (on Monday) because that was a lighter week last week for sure,” said Grimes, who credited one of his senior captains for keeping the guys headstrong.
“Cian Brennock, he’s done a great job as a senior leader and we don’t have a ton of seniors on the team,” Grimes added of his 300 pound two-way lineman. “He’s just keeping guys focused and making sure they’re ready for game week.”
In addition to Brennock, Grimes also highlighted fellow senior Jarrett Croft, a workhorse as a tight end/wide receiver hybrid who’s “done a great job despite having to work twice as hard as pretty much everyone else.”
Manchester went through one final walkthrough on Thursday afternoon and had a team dinner on the eve before their second game of the fall. From a preparation standpoint, the entirety of their focus has been shifted to Rockland, an opponent that got the best of them via a 33-16 decision last September.
Hurd and his teammates don’t forget that loss and are out for vengeance on their home turf.
“We’re expecting to use our energy as an advantage … our loss to them last year is definitely contributing to our mindset,” said Hurd. “We are treating this as a revenge game. It’s gonna take execution, high energy, and grit to get the job done.”
According to Grimes, it’s a new-look Rockland team but the same strong program, and the Hornets will have to be ready for whatever they throw at them. Ironically enough, the Bulldogs lone game thus far was a 28-14 setback to none other than West Bridgewater last weekend.
“They graduated a bunch of guys so we’re going to see a different look than last year for sure, and it’s only their second game, too, so we don’t have a ton of film on them,” said Grimes. “But what we did see was a lot of similar things from last year just with different personnel. There’s going to be a lot of adaptation going through the game, just as we expect all of the early season games to go.”
If there’s one thing Manchester hopes to do better on Friday, it’s taking care of the football. The Hornets coughed up two fumbles against West Bridgewater and were fortunate that it didn’t come back to bite them.
“Although we came out with the W, there was still a lot of room for improvement,” said Hurd. “Throughout practice the offense was emphasizing no turnovers. We had two sloppy turnovers against West Bridgewater, so we worked to clean this up in practice because in tighter games, there is no room for turnovers.”
Sports Editor Nick Giannino may be contacted at 978-675-2712 or ngiannino@northofboston.com.