Pop Warner

C Team

The East Boston C team Jets took the field on Sunday afternoon against a very talented Boston Raiders team. In the fist half, the Raiders punched in a touchdown on a third and goal to open the scoring, but failed on the extra point. The Jets came right back on a drive of their own that started on the own 40-yard line.

The Jets quarterback, Nelson Roach, kept his cool and led the offense down the field. The key play of the drive came from the arm of Ernie Deprendine, who threw the ball 25 yards to Felix Martinez to give the Jets the motivation they needed to keep the drive going. But the real key to the offense was the duo of Steve Clinton and Ernie Deprendine in the back field. They both ran the ball well and both blocked for each other to keep the chains moving during their drive that lasted almost the entire second quarter. Right before the half ended, the Raiders opened up their passing game and marched right down the field for a late score that made it 12-6.

The second half was all of the Raiders. They scored again on their second drive of the half and on the last play of the game to make the score 24-6. Even though the Jets lost, there were many positives. The defense stepped up in the second half and made some great stops. Geovanny Cruz, Joe Serpa, and Kevin James gave it their all throughout the game.

The Jets are now 1 and 1, but are 1 and 0 in division play. The Jets host Newton next week, which is a division game. The coaches thank all parents and cheerleaders for their support on Sunday and look forward to seeing you again on Sunday.

– Freddy Page

A Team

On Sunday, September 13, we traveled to Medford. Because both squads were undermanned, this game turned into a tune-up for us to see where we stood, mentally and physically.

For the most part, this team came into this ball game not really knowing one another and barely practiced in pads for two weeks. We did the best we could with what we had when we had them.

The game was led by not only our co-captains, John Marchese, Nick Hines, Nick Maniero and Darius Barry, but with Nick Hines at quarterback, Nick Maniero, Keenan Monroe, Rocco Flamingo at running back. During the first quarter, for the most part, our game plan was to run the ball, and we did, with very small results until the second quarter when a Brandon Errabey reverse opened the floodgates and we held the ball for the better part of the second quarter, picking up five first downs throughout our possession. Medford led 12-0 at half-time.

In the second half of play, our ground attack worked in the positive direction, and mixing in there was a huge running back flat pass caught by co-captain Nick Maniero. Well, unfortunately, we never found the end zone.

It was heartbreaking, because there were a lot of positive happenings with our offensive game, especially the great protection from the offensive line John Marchese, Darius Barry, Zach Errabey, Kyre Williams, Kelvin Flores, Phil Manero and Steven Kelley.

On the brighter side of all, Medford was unable to find the end zone as well. This was hugely attributed to us attacking and blitzing. The game ball went to Kelvin Flores for his huge inside presence plugging holes and cutting the runners at the line of scrimmage.

This week, on Sunday, September 20, we were invaded by our over the bridge rivals, the Chelsea Red Devils. We knew going into the contest they were going to be a fast team and we practiced accordingly, attempting a no huddle offense and a couple of trick plays which included a Keenan Monroe halfback pass.

To be honest with everyone, I was one confident coach in practice this week.

The kids were really beginning to gel a bit and working from last week’s huge confidence builder, we practiced with our hearts and skills.

Then we hit a weekend snag on Saturday, and it carried into Sunday, where we lost our weeks’ worth of momentum.

I can’t lie to you, especially those who witnessed this contest. We showed up physically, but not mentally.

For the most part, on the defensive side of the ball, we slowed Chelsea’s passing game down, breaking up some long bombs, thanks to our deep defenders Keenan Monroe, Brandon Errabey and Rocco Flamingo who, by the way, took a pretty good-sized hit in the back and still returned in the second half. WAY TO GO, ROCCO!

Also taking a huge hit (this one was in the head) was Darius Barry, who also came back with, “Coach, I’m ready to go back in.” WAY TO GO, DARIUS!

The long of the short of it – Chelsea really utilized their height advantage on us finding the end zone four times. But it took them all four quarters to do it, finding only once per quarter. The scoreboard didn’t show the effort we displayed.

Although not finding the end zone, the offense did the best they could, especially behind the one person who never left the field, Nick Maneiro.

At this time, I’m sending a special thank you to my assistant coach, Adam Bates.

– Head Coach Derek Curtin

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