TEWKSBURY — After already winning the Merrimack Valley Conference Division 2 title last week and looking at two excellent Catholic opponents over the next two weeks, Tewksbury could have easily overlooked Saturday’s opponent, the winless Lawrence Lancers.
But Tewksbury didn’t.
The Redmen rolled to a 35-0 victory and improved to 5-0 on the season.
Tewksbury will host St. John’s Prep in a non-league game on Saturday back at Ed Dick Memorial Field and then will take on MVC Division 2 champion Central Catholic in the league championship game a week from Friday.
“(Lawrence) has some real big bodies over there. Just look at some of those guys, so we know that we’re not good enough to take anyone lightly,” said Redmen head coach Brian Aylward. “We have to go out and execute and stay on schedule when we get the ball on offense. I thought we did that throughout the first half. The second half was kind of funky. Once you start talking about making substitutions and stuff like that, sometimes guys let their guards down. I thought we played clean for the most part.
“I’m happy for these guys to get through this one and now the next two games are going to have a Super Bowl-like feel to them.”
Before Tewksbury could think about the Prep, it had to take care of business.
Senior quarterback Ryne Rametta started the scoring when he connected on a 36-yard pass to Kalu Olu for the first score.
Rametta rushed in the conversion after Lawrence had jumped offsides on two separate occasions.
Three plays later, fellow captain Will McKay ran back a 72-yard interception and Nabil Barkallah’s kick was good, making it 15-0 with under four minutes to go in the first quarter.
The Redmen added a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to go up 28-0. Michael Kelly scored both, the first on an 11-yard inside trap and the second on a 9-yard pass from Rametta.
Kyle Darrigo scored the lone touchdown in the second half on a 1-yard run.
Tewksbury’s defense was once again stellar, limiting the Lancers to negative-three yards on the ground and just 53 total yards. The Redmen have yet to give up a point in the first and third quarters of their five games this Fall-2 season.
“The kids have been great about putting faith in us in terms of getting ready, and they take it to heart making adjustments, studying, preparing and working hard throughout the course of the week, and that was evident today,” said Aylward.