Tide football dominates host Somerville in GBL opener

Everett, now 1-1 on the season, comes home to take on Lynn English Friday night

  Coach Rob DiLoreto’s Everett High School football team took its frustrations out on host Somerville last Friday night after dropping the 2022 opener to non-league Xaverian, 49-19. The Crimson Tide were able to totally dominate the Highlanders, 42-0. It was the Greater Boston League (GBL) opener for both teams.

  “Our team played very hard in all three phases of the game against Somerville, and I’m very proud of our effort as a team,” said DiLoreto. “We worked hard all week in practice to improve our skills in every aspect of the game, while also cleaning up our mistakes from the loss against Xaverian.”

  The Tide wasted little time to send a message to their GBL rivals, scoring all 42 points in the first half, 20 of them during the opening stanza alone. Matthew LaMonica ignited the offense by finishing off a drive with a one-yard run to the end zone. Adoni Santos then tacked on the extra point. Christian Zamor then hooked up with quarterback Karmarri Ellerbe on a 29-yard pass scoring strike, followed by another successful extra point boot by Santos. Jayden Prophete then closed out the first quarter with a spectacular 48-yard touchdown run.

  Damien Lackland opened up the second quarter uprising with a four-yard run to paydirt. Prophete then accounted for two more points on the conversion attempt. Ellerbe went to the air once again to produce another six points. Giacobbe Ward was on the receiving end of that 44-yard touchdown pass, which helped turn the game into a rout early on. Santos then connected on his third successful extra point try to give his teammates a 35-0 lead.

  Pedro Rodrigues then helped close out the scoring in the game late in the second quarter after catching up with a three-yard TD pass from Ellerbe. Santos put the final exclamation point on this game with another kick right through the uprights.

  “I liked how our team played in this game with a fast and confident attitude,” said DiLoreto. “We have tremendous team speed, and we need to utilize that speed on every snap. Whether we are covering a kick, swarming to the ball on defense or running jet sweeps, we need to play as fast as possible.”

  “It is also nice to see our players performing with more confidence. We have a lot of first-year varsity starters, and hopefully they will build up more confidence in themselves and their abilities [to play in this league] every week,” added DiLoreto.

  The Tide now comes home Friday night (Sept. 23, 6 p.m.) to take on Lynn English, another GBL rival. The Bulldogs have yet to win this year, dropping their first two games to non-league opponents Swampscott (27-6) and Methuen (51-12).

  But Coach DiLoreto is certainly not overlooking them as he prepares his team for the game. “Lynn English is a very athletic and physical team. They run a bunch of 10 to 20 offensive formations, utilizing lots of motions in their spread offense attack. They have had some success getting the ball to the perimeter and over the top on both running and passing plays,” the Everett coach said.

  “On defense, they play a 4-4 base defense mixing in zone and man coverages with a heavy blitz package, as well. We know that we have to prepare and be on point Friday night, because we expect this to be a hard-fought game,” he added.