In tough ones to swallow for the City of Peabody, both the Tanners and Crusaders bowed out of their respective state tournament football brackets last Friday night.
No. 11 Peabody fell, 35-27, in a Division 2 heartbreaker against No. 6 Winchester; No. 5 Fenwick was on the wrong end of an upset in Division 5 after being handled by No. 12 Norton, 35-14.
The Tanners held a fourth-quarter lead, but an 84-yard kickoff return touchdown gave Winchester a late 28-27 advantage. Peabody’s offense had about three minutes to respond, but threw an interception before Winchester iced the game with an insurance touchdown.
As for how Tanners took their lead in the fourth quarter, look no further than Gabe Santos, who ran one in from 4 yards out (27-21). Santos finished with three touchdowns, while Tyler Rappold found the endzone in the second half.
Peabody checked out of the tournament with an overall record of 4-5 ahead of its Turkey Day meeting in Saugus (10 a.m.).
At Donaldson Stadium, it was home-field advantage, no problem for Norton. The visitors took care of business in an upset.
Fenwick’s Tyler Connolly scored a rushing touchdown from a yard out in the second half, while Dylan Patturelli did the scoring honors in the first half on a 10-yard rush, but that was all she wrote on the home-team scoreboard.
Looking at the season in its entirety, Fenwick was led by Patturelli (657 yards rushing, 9 TD), Jesse Timson (213 yards receiving, 3 TD), Brayden Clifford (758 yards passing, 11 TD), Aidan Silva (26 PAT), and Connolly (418 yards rushing, 5 TD).
