READING — Extra possessions give good football teams that little bit of extra breathing room they need to take care of business.
Friday night’s road battle with Reading wasn’t a perfect game for the Danvers High football team, but the Falcons caused five turnovers and came alive in the second half to put away the host Rockets, 37-20.
A double score to start the second half opened things up for the unbeaten Falcons (3-0), who trailed by four points at the break. After junior Zach Fultz (101 yards rushing) found a seam for a 30-yard touchdown on the third quarter’s opening drive, senior Colby Medeiros fell on his own onsides kick to give the visitors a golden chance to extend the lead.
Just five plays later senior captain Jack Houston, who ran for a game-high 136 yards, found the end zone for the first of his two scores — and Danvers was in business.
“There were a bunch of things that we had to sharpen up,” Falcon head coach Ryan Nolan said of his team’s halftime adjustments.
Danvers nearly reached the break leading, 10-8, thanks to a 36-yard field goal by Medeiros. But they subsequently gave up a long kick return and committed a personal foul, which allowed Reading’s Dominic Pate to score his second TD of the game with just nine seconds left in the second quarter.
“It was more about going up and playing big boy ball. We got pushed around a little bit and punched in the mouth by a group of tough, physical kids … and we did respond to that,” said Nolan.
Reading (1-2) didn’t go away, making it a 23-20 game when QB Kobe Johnson called his own number with 11:43 to play.
The smashmouth Danvers offense went back to work and Fultz punched it in for a 30-20 edge with 9:03 left. The Rockets fumbled the next kickoff and sophomore Timothy Nikiforov pounced on it for the Falcons to set up another Houston touchdown, finally quelling any hopes of a Reading rally.
“The No. 1 thing is that we’re a better team for having to respond the way we did,” said Nolan. “Not everything is going to go perfect every game. You have to find ways to answer, and we did that.”
The Rockets used some unbalanced sets and direct snaps to Pate to chew up ground yardage in the first half and took an 8-0 lead on the opening drive. The hosts had a 97-58 edge in total yardage at halftime, but Danvers pounded out nearly 200 second half yards and ended the game comfortably ahead in that department, 242-209.
“Reading is a very well-coached team, a well-established program, and they have some dudes,” Nolan said. “No. 2 (Pate) is an excellent player, they have some other good running backs, and their tight ends were a handful blocking.”
An interception by Houston set up Danvers’ first touchdown (a rugged run by Fultz), and a bad snap recovered by senior captain Nick Xerras led to the field goal by Medeiros, the third straight week he’s drilled one.
Houston, who Nolan lauded as an “absolute gamer”, also had a tremendous defensive effort and helped ignite the Danvers ground game in the second half. Fullback Mat Nikiforov had a crushing block on one of the Fultz touchdown runs, while junior Jaden Weiner and Xerras added tackles-for-loss and Medeiros ended Reading’s final drive with an interception.
“There are some things we need to be smarter about and we need to improve our situational awareness a little bit. So that’s what we’ll work on,” said Nolan, whose team faces rival Marblehead in its Northeastern Conference opener next week.
Danvers 37, Reading 20
at Hollingsworth Field, Reading
Danvers (3-0);0;10;13;14;37
Reading (1-2);8;6;0;6;20
Scoring summary
R — Dominic Pate 5 run (Pate rush)
D — Zach Fultz 5 run (Colby Medeiros kick)
D — Medeiros 36 FG
R — Pate 11 run (kick blocked)
D — Fultz 30 run (Medeiros kick)
D — Jack Houston 12 run (kick failed)
R — Kobe Johnson 7 run (rush failed)
D — Fultz 6 run (Medeiros kick)
D — Houston 13 run (Medeiros kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Danvers — Jack Houston 22-136, Zach Fultz 19-101, Nate Wise 5-5; Reading — Dominic Pate 15-64, Brady LaMontagne 13-53, Kobe Johnson 5-26.
PASSING: Danvers — Wise 1-2-7-0-1; Reading — Johnson 7-12-66-0-2, Pate 0-1-0-0-0.
RECEIVING: Danvers — Fultz 1-7; Reading — Pate 3-38, Jayden Gomes 3-27, LaMontagne 1-1 .