Beverly Tops Salem In
   Final Regular Season Game
    - by Dylan Kline

A frigid morning in Beverly was where the Beverly-Salem rivalry was held last Sunday. During pre-game warm-ups the snow started to fall for the first time of the year in the area. "The boys were going nuts all morning, they just couldn’t wait to play" remarked Coach Tom Richardson. Beverly, for the first time in weeks lost the coin toss. Therefore, Beverly kicked off to start the game. A great kick and terrific special teams coverage surprised Salem early. Some great Dog Pound "D" from Nathan Verry and Rob McGinnity stopped Salem early giving Beverly the ball. Beverly went to work but fumbled when the runner took a punishing hit and turned the ball over. Both sides had their chances in the first quarter but 0-0 was the score after one quarter. In the 2^nd Beverly was pumped. The panthers found themselves on the Salem 3-yard line early in the quarter. Head Coach Mike Nardella called upon his son J to run. J got the job done and was pleased to score his second touchdown of the year. "I really wanted to do my monkey dance" J said " but I knew better." Salem started to threaten but with a huge hit from Beverly, the ball popped loose and found its way in to JP "TD" Kehoe’s hands. JP took the ball back 60 yards for another six on Beverly’s side. The extra point was made making the score 14-0 in Beverly’s favor. That was how it stayed for the rest of the half

After half-time Beverly was pumped to play again. "We couldn’t get the boys to calm down in the locker room" commented Coach Ron McNeil. Beverly chose to receive the ball to start the second half. J Michael Nardella received the ball cleanly and got some positive yardage. On that drive Beverly marched down the field and put Jeff "Triple J" Jones into the end zone. The extra point attempt on the 35 blast bootleg pass failed to work giving Beverly a comfortable 20-0 lead. The quarter ended with that same score after both teams played some terrific "D." Not much happened in the last 10 minutes of play for either team. The game ended with some hard hitting football inside Salem’s twenty as the game ended with Beverly 20 and Salem 0.

After the game Beverly had a short talk in the locker room before letting the parents and family come up to hear Coach Nardella speak and to give T-shirts to Danny McKenna and Mike Romani who have much to do with running the league. Each player received a "C" team T-shirt and then had some pizza and soda in celebration. Sean and Seven Hutchinson both had terrific games in the white backfield. They both made some great runs to keep drives alive. Beverly finished its regular season 7-1, so will play next Sunday representing the North Shore Conference in the Eastern Mass playoffs. The team does not know the location, but wherever they go, they’ll be ready to play.  

The celebration begins as the Beverly C Team beats
Salem to finish 7-1 and win the North Shore Confer-
ence.  Below, another example of the swarming defense that allowed only one touchdown all year.

Rob McGinnity was as usual superb on defense
for the C Team Sunday.  His play on Salem's
opening drive set the tone for the morning as
Beverly cruised to its seventh straight win, 20-0.