Tide comes up short against host Central Catholic to close out its non-playoff game schedule

Everett football now gets ready to host St. Mary’s of Lynn on Thanksgiving Eve at Everett Stadium

By Joe McConnell

For the second straight week, the Everett High School football team (6-0 in the Greater Boston League, 8-2 overall) played a Division 1 non-playoff game after being denied a playoff berth by the new MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) power rankings system.

Central Catholic (4-6) provided the opposition last Friday night in Lawrence after they lost to Springfield Central in a Sweet 16 game, 24-7. The Raiders were the 10^th seed in Division 1. Springfield Central (8-2) was ranked seventh. But the Golden Eagles then ended up losing to Xaverian in an Elite 8 game last Friday night, 21-20.

While their first-round opponents were being eliminated by the second-seeded Hawks (8-2), the Raiders were able to bounce back to defeat visiting Everett in a competitive game, 38-21.

First-year Everett football coach Justin Flores thought the final score did not indicate the competitiveness of the Central Catholic game. “The final score of the game doesn’t tell the whole story, and just how close it was until there was only four minutes left on the clock,” he said. “We made too many mistakes at critical points of the game that ended up costing us a win. Each one of those mistakes directly led to points by Central Catholic.”

Flores claims that statistically his team played its best game this season, besides the one against Somerville. “We ran the ball extremely well (against Central Catholic) to come up with the most yards we had in a game this season,” he said. “We also hit on some explosive plays in the passing game, but still have to be more efficient overall.”

Flores specifically mentioned the offensive line for playing an outstanding game. “I thought they dominated the line of scrimmage, and got great movement. They executed the game plan very well,” he said.

The blocking up front helped quarterback Carlos Rodriguez complete 11 passes for 160 yards. He also rushed for six yards on five carries. Christian Zamor caught two of his passes for 12 yards. Zamor also rushed for 43 yards on four carries, and was credited with one touchdown. Manny Santiago also scored a touchdown, while ending up with two carries for 47 rushing yards. Damien Lackland was on the receiving end of three passes for 30 yards, and also carried the ball 13 times for 49 yards. Jayden Prophete hauled in four passes for 49 yards against the Raiders.

The Crimson Tide is now getting ready for the Thanksgiving game against visiting St. Mary’s of Lynn at Everett Stadium on Thanksgiving Eve (Nov. 22), starting at 6 p.m.

“We took some days off this week to get some of our players healthy for the Thanksgiving game,” said Flores. “We will get back to work at the back end of this week, and will be practicing over the weekend to keep our normal weekly practice structure in place.”