THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2021 Page 13 Everett High football KO’d in first round of MIAA State Championship Playoffs Methuen stuns favored Tide in a 25-22 final; Everett eliminated from postseason play By Nick Toscani T hey have started no less than five of their seven wins the same way as their first playoff game began Friday night in Methuen. Star running back J.C. Clerveaux takes a handoff from QB Kamarri Ellerbe and races down the field for a long touchdown run and an early Everett lead. So it was on Friday as Everett kicked off what was hoped to be a long, strong postseason championship run. With 1:28 left to play in the first quarter, Clerveaux broke free over the right side, shrugged Star running back J.C. Clerveaux was the offensive power for the Tide last week, shown here scoring a touchdown during recent action against Medford. (Advocate file photos) he fired a 55-yard TD pass to Will McKinnon. Tide trailed at halftime first-time ever all season Abatoui’s PAT kick made the Rangers a 9-7 halftime leader. Friday night’s game was the very first time all season long that Everett had trailed any opponent at halftime. It would prove to be an unfortunate harbinger for the Tide’s future in this game. Coach DiLoreto went to his bread-and-butter go-to man, Clerveaux, early on, and the Tide FOOTBALL | SEE PAGE 14 Everett Head Coach Rob DiLoreto will have a lot to say to the Tide football team following their early exit in the tourney loss against Methuen. The coach is shown talking to the team following their last regular season win against Medford. off a tackle and streaked down the sideline for a 62-yard TD and a 6-0 Tide lead. The PAT kick made it 7-0. Unfortunately for second-season head coach Rob DiLoreto’s visiting Everett squad, that opening score very well may have lit a fire under the home team Methuen Rangers. Methuen fought punchfor-punch with the Tide Methuen fought punch-forpunch with the Tide the rest of the way, and despite falling behind in the fourth quarter, came all the way back to stun the favored Everett squad, 25-22, and end the Crimson Tide’s postseason run in round one. Methuen (7-2) advanced to play top seed Franklin on the road tonight with the win in the Division 1 “Elite Eight.” Everett is undefeated no more with the loss (7-1) and falls into the consolation round, where the Tide plays on the road at Andover tonight at 7:00. Everett also has a Thanksgiving Day opponent this year, hosting St. John’s (Shrewsbury) on Thursday, November 25 at 10:00 a.m. Methuen’s upset win was led by a remarkable two-way “star of the show” game by senior J.P. Muniz, who intercepted two Everett passes in the final three minutes and also rushed for a touchdown and caught the eventual 12-yard touchdown resulting in the game-winning score with less than four minutes to play. Everett seemed ready to strike at the end With 3:55 left on the game clock, the Tide drove the ball all the way to the Methuen 22-yard line. Well within striking distance, Everett seemed poised to finish this one with a dramatic late winning score. It was not meant to be. Ellerbe dropped back to pass on a third-and-six play and fired a pass. Muniz had other ideas and picked off his second interception with 1:14 left on the clock, his second INT in the final five minutes of the game. Methuen ran off the rest of the clock, and the Ranger fans and players celebrated their football program’s biggest postseason win ever. Everett’s DiLoreto gave the winners credit. “[Methuen] played a real hard game, and they were very well-coached and disciplined,” Coach DiLoreto said in an online report. “They made some big plays when they needed to.” After Clerveaux’s TD jaunt in the first quarter, Methuen fought back hard. The Ranger defense kept Everett out of the scoring column for the rest of the half, and the Rangers scored on each of its two second-quarter possessions to take a 9-7 lead at halftime. Methuen’s Omar Abatoui nailed a 20-yard field goal on the Ranger’s first possession of the second quarter to cut the Everett lead to 7-3. Then, with just 3:26 left to go before the halftime break, Methuen sophomore quarterback Drew Eason shocked the numerous Everett fans who had made the 28-mile trip up I-93 North when
14 Publizr Home