By BOB ALBRIGHT News staff While the Beverly High football team has gone through a season of growing pains, first-year BHS coach John Boughner can take some consolation in the fact that there is indeed plenty of help coming up in the ranks. After winning the New England Level C Pop Warner Championship a year ago, virtually the same team has graduated to Level B without missing a beat. The Beverly players repeated as North Shore League champions with a scintillating 7-1 record and have won their first two playoff games. Most recently, the Bad Dawgs, as they like to be called, avenged their one loss this past Sunday as they blanked Triton, 18-0, to advance to Wednesday's Eastern Mass. Championship game against Marlboro. A win in that one would put the group of primarily 12 and 13-year-olds in the state championship game and one win away from advancing to the New England Championship game for the second straight year. Last year, the Dawgs topped Dighton-Rehoboth, 32-19, in Coventry, R.I. and brought the New England championship trophy back to Beverly. "We really do have the same team from last year," said Beverly head coach Mike Nardella, who lost just a handful of players due to weight requirements. "They know what it takes to win, and now we're seeing that in the playoffs." Despite playing without two injured two-way starters Sunday against Triton, Nardella was pleased with the way his team rose to the challenge and avenged what was a very frustrating loss. "That was a real big win for the guys," said Nardella, who had seen his team uncharacteristically turn the ball over five times on its way to a 6-0 defeat at Triton in the rain. "The guys felt that they had given the game to them and wanted to show what kind of team they really were." The 18-0 shutout was the fourth straight for the Dawgs since that loss and represented their sixth of the year. The defense is led by the trio of hard-hitting Nathan Verry at middle linebacker, the fleet-footed Pat Bailey at cornerback and the relentless Jeff Jones at monster back. Against Triton, Bailey also rushed for two TDs from his halfback post, while second-year quarterback Jason Fullerton added the third score on a sneak. Other consistent players for the Dawgs on the offensive side of the ball include halfback J. Michael Nardella, tight end Matt MacAniff, and running back Jason Kusiak. The difference between Level C and Level B is roughly 15 pounds a player, but Nardella reports the difference is like night and day on the football field. "It's a huge jump," said the coach. "Both in the overall maturity of the guys and the speed and strength of the boys. I'm finding that there are some drills that I did last year that I can't do this year because the guys would kill each other." Besides, the coach is hoping his troops save up all that aggression for tomorrow night's game against Marlboro. |
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