When it rains… – Undermanned Vikings washed out by Rams

“It was a lousy night all around,” Winthrop head football coach Sean Driscoll said of last Friday’s 31-12 loss to Lynn Classical at Manning Field. “It was rainy and windy, and we were dealing with some injuries and some players out sick but those weren’t the reasons we lost. We just allowed too many big plays.”

Indeed, Classical notched touchdown runs of 18, 55, 47 and 38 yards in the first three quarters.

Winthrop finally got on the board in the fourth quarter on a 12-yard run by senior fullback Joe Clougherty, who led the team in rushing with 10 carries for 53 yards and the TD. Sophomore Ruben Powell had the Vikings only other score, a four yard run late as part of his 45 yards on four carries in garbage time.

“Classical runs a version of the Georgia Tech Option offense and I thought we did well with it at times, but the big plays just did us in,” said Driscoll. “On the positive side, we got a lot of young guys, sophomores, stepping up and getting some meaningful playing time due to the absence of some of our veterans ad starters.”

Among the sophomores that saw significant action, and played tough physical games were David Gallo playing for Anthony Hatzisavas, Tom Lund in place of Nick Doonan and Brandon Gentile who played for Dan Feeley.

“We had three sophomores starting on the line and I thought they played physically and gave great effort,” said Driscoll. “They aren’t quite where they need to be, but this game was great experience for them and will give us better depth in the future.”

Also missing from the Vikings lineup due to injury or illness were Mitchell Paulson, Joe Boudrow and Nick Beaudry.

“We had a bit of a bug going through the team, but that’s no excuse,” said Driscoll.

Junior quarterback and linebacker Jimmy Barker was again the team’s defensive stabndout with 16 tackles and earned the Viking Black Shirt Award.

Senior running back and cornerback Nick McCarthy had a tough game on offense, but did notch nine tackles on defense.

“We have to do a better job of getting Nick in space, so that he can be a better weapon for us,” said Driscoll. “I think that teams are coming in and planning to take him away, because they know he’s our go to offensive player, so we have to make some adjustments to what we do.”

Also making his return to the field is junior running back Philip Locigno, who has been out since the pre-season with an injury. Locigno carried the ball six times for 25 yards on Friday and Driscoll said he hopes that he can be a big contributor for the team going forward.

“It’s tough to fall to 0-4, but the bottom line is that these tough games will prepare us better to take on our division schedule and all of our goals are still before us,” said Driscoll. “We think the NEC South division is there to be taken, but we’d like to get a win ad take some momentum into the league portion of our schedule.”

The Vikings are home for the next three games, starting this Friday with a visit from the Peabody Tanners. Following the tilt with Peabody, the Vikings will host Saugus and Beverly, before hitting the road again.

Check out the Vikings on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Miller Field.