Concord-Carlisle Rides Craan to Win Over Lexington

Posted on September 17th 2011

by Eitan Tye

Concord, Mass. – Concord-Carlisle and Lexington is a rivalry that was built in the late 1800's with Lexington (0-2) taking the last six games in the match-up. Lexington dominated C-C in 2010, 26-13, and is looking to develop a new identity under first year head coach George Peterson. Concord-Carlisle (2-0) returns a veteran group, who made it to the D2A Super Bowl last season and is hungry to get back to Foxborough.

On an unseasonably frigid September night, C-C’s white-hot offense showed no signs of cooling down, pounding Lexington by a score of 40-14.

The Patriots controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, harassing Minuteman QB Connor Murray ’12 all night and running at will against a soon-gassed Lexington defense. The Minutemen could not capitalize on the chances they had to cut into the C-C lead with costly costly turnovers, giving away the ball three times during the course of the game. C-C even returned one of Lexington’s fumbles for a score, on a 29-yard run by LB Thomas Kleyn ’12 (pictured below) in the third quarter.

Reigning New England Prep Stars Player of the Year George Craan '12 (pictured above left) had a game to remember, rushing for 170 bruising yards and two touchdowns, (21 and 10 yards). Although he played like a man among boys, effortlessly plowing through defenders on numerous occasions, Craan was quick to deflect credit off of himself:

“I feel that my performance is really the line’s performance," said Craan. "The line opens up the holes for me, and the holes tonight were beautiful. Everybody executed\. It was a group performance."

Everything seemed to go right for the Patriots on Friday night. In the first quarter alone, Kleyn managed to recover a Craan fumble and score on a bizarre 65-yard touchdown run. C-C RB Tim Badgley ’13 continued his strong start to 2011 successfully impersonated Danny Woodhead on a 30-yard touchdown scamper off an inside reverse.

“The defense did a heck of a job," said Craan. "I feel like we really came together as a team this game.”

Despite the loss, Lexington RB Nick Murray ’12 built on his impressive 2011 campaign, scoring his second and third touchdowns of the year on runs of 32 and 58 yards in the game’s closing minutes. Nonetheless, the Minutemen find themselves looking for answers after a 0-2 start to the season.

As for C-C, Craan is confident in his team’s ability to approach each contest with the highest level of mental and physical preparedness.

“Hard work pays off," said Craan. "We were extremely well prepared for this game and it showed in our performance. The coaches did a great job preparing us”

As for his expectations for the rest of the season however, Craan offered a response direct from a Bill Belichik press conference:

Right now I’m just worried about the next game. We have to take it day by day, game by game.

C-C gets back to action next Friday when they travel to Waltham High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Lexington looks to end their two game skid as they travel to Acton-Boxborough (1-1) next Friday night.