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Apr. 3—NEWBURYPORT — From the opening whistle to the final clock-suffocating drive, Ipswich football was in full control. The Tigers moved the ball on offense, got stops on defense, and never left room for doubt about what the outcome would be.
By the time it was over, Newburyport coach Ben Smolski neatly summed it up.
“They punched us in the face and they out-toughed us,” Smolski said. “That was that.”
Ipswich dominated Newburyport for a 33-6 win on Friday night, seizing control early and never letting up. The Tigers, who now improve to 3-0, were clearly fresh coming out of last week’s bye and enjoyed a strong team rushing effort while also hitting on multiple trick plays to break the game open.
“The guys are stepping up and making plays, they’re coming together, they’re doing the little things that a lot of guys do to deserve to win, and I think it’s paying off,” said Ipswich coach Kevin Fessette. “I think we won the bye week with that extra time to rest up and obviously to plan up a game plan.”
The Tigers scored on their first two possessions to jump out to a quick 14-0 lead. Chase Huntley first kept the opening drive alive with a 22-yard rush on 4th and 2 to get deep into Newburyport territory, and after failing to score on the goal line three times the Tigers finally punched it in on a 1-yard Cole Terry touchdown on 4th and goal.
Newburyport fumbled the ball away on its subsequent possession and Ipswich quickly capitalized, with David Lonergan scoring on a 9-yard rush to make it a two score game. Needing a response, the Clippers put together their best drive of the game, with quarterback Finn Sullivan engineering a 14-play, 71-yard scoring drive capped off with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Buontempo.
Things immediately went south after that, however, when the subsequent extra-point was blocked and Ipswich immediately scored on a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown. Upon receiving the kick, Justin Bruhm and Terry ran crossing patterns and faked a handoff, with enough of the defense biting and chasing after Terry. Ipswich’s blockers took care of the rest, opening up a huge hole for Bruhm to take it to the house.
“We have a couple of senior weapons back there that we’re like, you know, short season, usually you don’t like using those guys in case they go down in that long season, but we said you know what, lets put them back there, they’re the best players we’ve got on the team, their kicker is outstanding, one of the best kickers I’ve seen, and we knew if he didn’t put it in the end zone we’d have a shot,” Fessette said, referring to Newburyport’s first-year senior kicker Andrew Goodwin. “So we put together a couple of things and finally we went all the way back to the house, and I think that was a big part of the game.”
Newburyport trailed 20-6 at halftime and immediately fell into a deeper hole in the third, as Ipswich received the ball to start the half and quickly drove downfield for a 6-yard Terry touchdown, his second of the game, to make it 27-6. The Clippers’ next drive went nowhere, but on the following Ipswich possession Newburyport forced a fumble recovered by senior Andrew Cullen.
Needing a score to keep hopes of a comeback alive, Sullivan drove the Clippers into Ipswich territory again. The junior hit receiver Lucas Stallard for gains of 14 and 10 after falling into a 3rd and 18 hole, and then found senior Nick Petty for an acrobatic 22-yard gain. But once at the Ipswich 22, Newburyport’s offense stalled, and a seven-yard sack by Nikhil Walker on third down essentially doomed the drive.
The Clippers, for all intents and purposes, would never touch the ball again.
Ipswich took over on downs with seconds remaining in the third quarter, and their ensuing 13-play scoring drive killed more than seven minutes of clock. The Tigers converted on third down three times, and once at Newburyport’s 22, the Tigers delivered the kill shot when quarterback Aiden Arnold, who is rarely called upon to throw the ball, fooled the defense and hit the big receiver Walker in space. Walker dragged his would-be tackler into the end zone for the 22-yard touchdown, and both teams emptied their benches for the last two minutes and change.
“The problem that we have is we don’t finish, we get moving but we don’t finish,” Smolski said afterwards. “We just have to finish on offense and toughen up on defense.”
Newburyport is now 2-2 on the season and faces a make-or-break rematch with Lynnfield at James T. Stehlin Field next Friday. Ipswich, meanwhile, stands alone in first place in the CAL Baker standings at 3-0 and will host Pentucket next Friday.
Injury update
One of the few blemishes on an otherwise outstanding performance by Ipswich was when standout running back Chase Huntley went down with an injury in the fourth quarter. Luckily for the Tigers the injury does not appear to be serious, as Fessette said Huntley has a sprained ankle and should be day to day going forward.
On Newburyport’s side, the Clippers have accumulated some significant injury losses that have hampered the team. Senior quad-captain Jason Tamayoshi, one of the team’s top running backs, is probably out for the season, and fellow captain and top lineman John Donovan is expected to miss time as well. Standout sophomore linebacker Jack Hadden has also been out, collectively leaving the Clippers without three of their most impactful players.
***
Ipswich 33, Newburyport 6
Ipswich (3-0): 7 13 7 6 — 33
Newburyport (2-2): 0 6 0 0 — 6
First Quarter
I — Cole Terry 1 run (Rowan Silva kick), 2:30
Second Quarter
I — David Lonergan 9 run (Silva kick), 8:16
N — Jacob Buontempo 4 pass from Finn Sullivan (kick blocked), 1:28
I — Justin Bruhm 90 kickoff return (kick blocked), 1:11
Third Quarter
I — Terry 6 run (Silva kick), 8:18
Fourth Quarter
I — Nikhil Walker 22 pass from Aiden Arnold (kick failed), 2:59
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Newburyport (28-144) — Finn Sullivan 14-73, Jacob Buontempo 9-28, Jack Breighner 4-27, Charlie Cahalane 1-16; Ipswich (32-205) — David Lonergan 9-79, Cole Terry 11-59, Chase Huntley 5-43, Aiden Arnold 6-23, Malcolm MacDonald 1-1
PASSING: Newburyport — Finn Sullivan 12-17, 90; Ipswich — Aiden Arnold 2-3, 43; Cole Terry 1-1, 22
RECEIVING: Newburyport — Lucas Stallard 4-44, Nick Petty 1-22, Trevor Ward 4-8, Jacob Buontempo 2-8, Andrew Cullen 1-8; Ipswich — Nikhil Walker 2-43, Justin Bruhm 1-22
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