Everett High’s football team closed the regular season Friday night with a 20-19 win at Lynn Classical’s Manning Field, its second straight game decided by a single point. The Crimson Tide finish 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the Greater Boston League and now wait on the MIAA Division 1 playoff bracket, which is expected this week with first-round games on November 5 and 6.
The Daily Item described the Lynn game as an entertaining one that turned chippy late, with Classical, now 3-5, failing on a two-point try that would have put it ahead. Full scoring details were not available Sunday morning.
The Somerville finish
The week before, on October 23 at Everett Veterans Memorial Stadium, the Tide held off Somerville 27-26 in a game the Everett Independent called one of the most exciting of the season.
Freshman quarterback Michael Walsh opened the scoring on a 3-yard bootleg, but Somerville led 14-7 at the half after holding Everett’s running game to 27 yards all night. “Somerville was trying to load the box and stop the run, so we used our RPOs in the second half,” coach Rob DiLoreto said.
Walsh scored on a sneak in the third quarter. In the fourth, Jamauri Dulin made a leaping catch in the back of the end zone to put Everett up 25-20, and Walsh found Tyler Freni on a broken play for the two-point conversion. “Just an amazing catch by Jamauri,” DiLoreto said. Phil Pimenta then intercepted a pass and returned it 82 yards for a touchdown. “That was a tremendously impactful play in the game,” DiLoreto said.
Somerville scored with 50 seconds left to make it 27-26 and went for two. Jeremiah “JJ” Joseph knocked the pass down. “That’s a game-saving play by JJ with 50 seconds to go,” DiLoreto said. Walsh finished 9 of 15 for 143 yards with a touchdown pass and two rushing scores, and senior noseguard Kamari Washum was in on tackle after tackle.
What is next
The playoff draw will be posted by the MIAA once the final power rankings are set. Everett’s Thanksgiving game is at Waltham on Thursday, November 26, at 10 a.m.