WAKEFIELD — The North Shore Tech football team would have needed a dynamite performance from senior quarterback David St. Pierre if it wanted to keep its postseason hopes alive last night against Northeast Metro Tech on Thanksgiving Eve.
But the host Knights simply wouldn't let St. Pierre get comfortable in the pocket, and their offense sliced through North Shore Tech on their way to a one-sided 52-20 victory on a sloppy field.
Northeast sacked St. Pierre 11 times.
"We brought people from everywhere — up the middle and on the edge," Northeast coach Don Heres said. "I've been around David for awhile. He's a great quarterback and a smart kid, but at times he didn't know where we were coming from."
North Shore found itself in an early hole — Northeast posted 30 points before the Bulldogs knew what hit them. A few costly mistakes hurt North Shore both on the scoreboard and mentally.
The Bulldogs had three snaps sail over St. Pierre's head while in the shotgun formation.
"We lost a lot of confidence on the offensive line early due to the fumbled snaps," North Shore coach Paul Worth said. "Once that happened, I think our offensive line panicked and had trouble picking up the blitz."
Northeast will now represent the Commonwealth Small in the postseason by finishing 4-0 in conference play. North Shore, meanwhile, closes its season at 2-2 in conference play and 6-5 overall.
"We were able to disguise our look and that disrupted them," Heres said, his team now 6-5 after starting the year 0-4. "We're getting stronger and better every week, and I've never been more proud of a team I've coached."
Northeast scored the game's first four touchdowns. Joe Ginepra scored on runs of 7 and 2 yards, Bobby Novello added a 39-yard TD run, and quarterback Donato DiPietrantonio connected with Zack Allen for a 40-yard touchdown pass.
North Shore finally got on the board late in the second quarter when St. Pierre hit Jesse Wilkins for a 12-yard touchdown pass. Wilkins added the conversion rush to cut it to 30-8, but Northeast wasted little time in answering.
Ginepra scampered 67 yards through the North Shore defense and pitched in the two-point conversion to send Northeast to the locker room with a 38-8 advantage.
"We played some different defenses than we have in the past. We were in man-to-man on all their receivers and we knew their quarterback (Donato DiPietrantonio) could beat us over the top. Credit to him, but we missed a few assignments," Worth said. "And we just got beat up front."
North Shore has had difficulty stopping the run all season, and the Bulldogs couldn't find a way to correct it last night. Northeast passed only twice the entire game — one went 40 yards for a TD, and the other worked for 35 yards.
The Knights ran for 273 yards.
North Shore swapped touchdowns with Northeast in the second half ,with St. Pierre running for one touchdown and throwing 38 yards to Pat Wood on the last play of the game for the final score.
"We don't have the type of offense to play in this type of weather," Worth said about the rain. "We really needed scores on our first couple of drives because I knew our defense wasn't going to stop them. We just didn't play physical enough."
St. Pierre finished 11-of-17 passing for 153 yards and two TDs for the game. This season he threw for 2,634 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Northeast Metro 52, North Shore 20
at Northeast Metro Tech, Wakefield
North Shore Tech08012 — 20
Northeast162286 — 52
NE-Joe Ginepra 7 run (Ginepra rush)
NE-Ginepra 2 run (Michael Cain rush)
NE-Bobby Novello 39 run (rush failed)
NE-Zack Allen 40 pass from Donato DiPietrantonio (Cain rush)
NS-Jesse Wilkins 12 pass from David St. Pierre (Wilkins rush)
NE-Ginepra 67 run (Allen rush)
NE-Kladji Plivani 1 run (Ginepra rush)
NS-St. Pierre 16 run (rush failed)
NE-Dan Khun 6 run (kick failed)
NS-Pat Wood 38 pass from St. Pierre (no PAT attempted)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: North Shore — Jesse Wilkins 5-36, David St. Pierre 14-29; Northeast — Joe Ginepra 7-94, Bobby Novello 8-78, Michael Cain 5-45, Dan Khun 6-28, Kladji Plivani 4-28.
PASSING: North Shore — St. Pierre 11-17-153-2-0; Northeast — Donato DiPietrantonio 2-2-75-1-0.
RECEIVING: North Shore — Pat Wood 3-55, Wilkins 4-48, Chris Baker 2-27, Jordan Castillo 2-23, ; Northeast — Zack Allen 2-75.
