North Andover Lax Keeps Rolling against Billerica

By Michael Abelson (@ABELS0N)

North Andover, Mass. - The North Andover Scarlet Knights continued tearing through their opponents, rolling past Merrimack Valley Conference rival Billerica 11-7 at Walsh Stadium.

The Knights never trailed and led by as many as eight. North Andover raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Scarlet Knights led 7-2 at halftime and 10-3 after three quarters.

The win kept the Knights undefeated at 8-0. During its dominant start, North Andover has outscored its opponents 118-34 so far this season.

MIAA Football Top 25: Week 6

Despite a loss to rival St. John's (Shrewsbury), senior athlete Chris Campbell and his Shrewsbury Colonials appear in our poll for the first time this season. Most known as a receiver and defensive back, Campbell also hurt the Pioneers with his arm last Friday night.

Our midseason rankings of the best teams in the state, as selected by our panel of staff writers and correspondents. (Updated 10/9)

1. Everett (4-0; Last Week – 1 ) An early fumble proved the only blip in Everett’s latest romp over MIAA competition, as the Crimson Tide rolled past Lowell for a decisive 55-27 victory at Cawley Stadium on Friday night.

2. BC High (5-0; Last Week – 2 ) No issues for the Eagles in the conference opener, will Danny Abraham and company be able to run wild with St. John’s Prep visiting next Friday?

3. Central Catholic (5-0; Last Week – 3) The Raiders are outscoring co-leader in the MVC Lowell by just one point, yet are giving up 187 points fewer this season. We’ll see if that defense stands up against Lowell at Cawley Stadium next Friday.

Duxbury Runs Away from Billerica

By Marisa Ingemi (@Marisa_Ingemi)

BILLERICA - Fueled by nine different goal scorers, Duxbury was able to torch Billerica 15-10 in a road contest on Wednesday night. The Dragons (13-3) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Indians (10-8) scored the next three to make it a tightly contested game. From there, however, the Dragons soared, dominated the second half.

Riley Bergstrom scored twice in the first quarter, and added an assist, as a part of the initial 4-0 run, and senior attack Bobby Maimaron scored all three of his goals in the opening half. Despite the Indians' initial comeback, the Dragons held onto an 8-5 lead at the half thanks to a late second quarter defensive stand.

To begin the third quarter, the Dragons took off, led by two tallies from Charlie Gans. Gans, along with Bergstrom and Nick LoConte, all scored two goals apiece overall.

“That’s a good sign that we can spread it around and get scoring from a bunch of different players,” said Dragons head coach Chris Sweet.

St. John's Prep and Billerica Motivated From the Outset of Baseball Season

After back-to-back years of Super 8 disappointment, can St. John's Prep finally get over the hump this season?   Photo by Brendan C. Hall, via ESPN Boston.

DANVERS, Mass. - No matter how the previous season ended, it can motivate teams to put in the extra work in the hopes of going one step further the next year.

For a St. John’s Prep group that lost to Braintree in the MIAA Division 1A “Super 8” Final for the second consecutive season, that motivation runs extremely deep.

On Thursday, March 30, the Eagles hosted a Billerica team that finished the 2016 regular season 17-5 and finished ninth in the voting for the Super 8 tournament, losing out to a dark horse candidate in Newton North.

Avoiding the letdown that can befall spurned Super 8 teams in the Division 1 State Tournament, the Indians rallied for a 5-4 extra innings win over Malden Catholic, before falling to a red-hot Lawrence team in last year’s postseason.

So, like Prep, Billerica comes into this season with a bit of a chip on its shoulder.

Beverly Uses Huge Second Half to Stun Billerica, 19-18, Advance to D2 Semifinal

Beverly stunned Billerica in the second half for a 19-18 victory to advance to the D2 State Semifinal

By Mike Abelson (@ABELS0N)

BILLERICA -- Sam Abate did it all, and a little bit more for Beverly in the second half last night against Billerica.

Abate’s three second-half touchdowns powered Beverly to 19 straight points in  and an improbable 19-18 come-from-behind victory over Billerica to win the Division 2 North title.

After not getting a single offensive touch in the first half, Abate took over in the final 22 minutes. He rushed the ball 10 times for 75 yards and two touchdowns and caught an 80-yard touchdown pass.

Tewksbury Tops Billerica for MVC Crown & Top Seed

By Nate Weitzer (@nweitzer7)

TEWKSBURY, Mass. – The Billerica Indians and Tewksbury Redmen came into Saturday’s winner-take-all battle for the Merrimack Valley Conference title with identical 6-0 records, but each program took a different route to get to that point.

Billerica came into the 2016 season with 17 returning seniors and lofty expectations that were inflated by wins over Division 1 powers Andover and Everett, while the Redmen were somewhat overlooked to begin the year because of all the important players they graduated.

However, on a rain-soaked field at Tewksbury’s John F. Daly Elementary School this Saturday, the less experienced and smaller Redmen made more big plays and dominated the second half, en route to a 20-7 victory and league title.

Top 25 MIAA Football Rankings: Week 5

How high will quarterback Zach Burns and Billerica climb after a huge win against Everett?

By SuiteSports Staff

Ed. Note- Though ESPN Boston High Schools is no more, SuiteSports is thrilled to welcome a few former members of that team, including former Assistant Editor Nate Weitzer.

Each week, Nate, myself, and our other correspondents and colleagues across the state will rank our Top 25 teams in Massachusetts high school football. After all, just because ESPN Boston High Schools is done, that doesn't mean we should stop doing our Top 25 every week. For now, our "Last Week" ranking will refer to where each team stood in ESPN Boston's final poll. 

Anyways, onward to our first ever statewide Top 25!

10 Takeaways from Week 4 of Massachusetts HS Football

King Phillip scored a thrilling win against Mansfield to seize control of the Hockomock Kelley-Rex Division.

By John Sarianides (@xnojoe)

Ed. Note- In the interest of full disclosure, we should let you know that our buddy John is a coach at King Phillip. Still, we trust his objectivity, and certainly think he has a reason to be proud of his team's performance last week.

It was another exciting weekend of high school football in Massachusetts. Here are ten thoughts from the weekend that was.

1. Billerica’s 24-21 win over Everett is a program-altering win. The Indians had a big win over Andover two weeks ago, but beating Everett takes your program to another level. The Indians are legit.

2. I guess Bridgewater-Raynham awakened the sleeping giant when they beat Xaverian two weeks ago. The X hasn’t surrendered a point since, and Catholic Memorial only had 23 yards of total offense on Friday night.

Friday Five-Pack: 5 HS Football Games to Watch in MA

Holliston quarterback Jack Barrett has the Panthers poised for another state title run.

By John Sarianides (@xnojoe)

Ed. Note- SuiteSports is thrilled to welcome John Sarianides to the team. John also contributes to ESPN Boston and Boston Herald Radio, and has an extensive teaching and coaching record in Massachusetts. Each Friday, John will give us his games to watch, then each Monday he'll give us his biggest takeaways from the week that was.

Welcome aboard, John!

Billerica at Andover

This will be a great game coached by two of the best spread coaches in the state. Both teams run the spread offense, but the two offenses are philosophically different. Billerica runs a physical version of the spread. Indians coach Duane Sigsbury loves to pound the ball and control the clock.

Conversely, Andover likes to play fast and throw it all over the yard with quarterback E.J. Perry and wide receiver Dan Gemmell.

As we saw last week against BC High, however, playing fast can be a problem if you're not converting third downs and scoring points. Andover had issues with BC High's physicality last week, and I think they'll have a tough time with Billerica up front. If the Warriors don't score first and get Billerica out of their comfort zone, they could be in for a long night.