Friday night at Nicholson Stadium had to be.
I throw out this compliment with the deepest respect one can muster in these parts.
Somewhere right now, the late Larry Klimas is grinning, ear to ear.
His once-proud Methuen High football program is in incredibly competent hands.
Any dissenters to that statement, doubters of Pat Graham and his Methuen High football program, were swept away in the frenzy that was the Rangers’ Friday night win over Central Catholic.
Incredibly, we heard the naysayers even after the Rangers toppled eventual EMass Divisional champion Dracut on Thanksgiving a year ago.
“Dracut had nothing to play for.”
“The Middies were sandbagging for the playoffs, not wanting to give anything away.”
“It’s only one year. What happens next year?”
Next year has happened, and Graham’s Rangers now stand at 7-2, two wins away from the first playoff trip since Joe Cerami, Jay Danela and the boys beat Billy Tucker and Reading back in 1992.
I thought a lot about that ‘92 playoff game last night, standing on the field at Ranger Road. The atmosphere was just like that day, sans the six inches of snow that fell on that morning.
It was cold, the fans on both sides were into it, students were going batty. It was good stuff.
Nay, great stuff.
Two solid teams, slugging it out with class. Rugged hitting, bombs being dropped everywhere.
Fans on the edge of every seat. Emotion. Defense.
Everything that was lacking in this rivalry over decade before Graham arrived in Methuen has been restored.
Graham is the man to laud for that one. Let’s face it. He walked into a job that couldn’t be considered a prime opening.
The Rangers hadn’t won a league game in three seasons, if I’m not mistaken. Numbers were down. The athletes seemingly stopped caring.
And Graham took over a Ranger program, the choice over a hometown hero, Kevin Bradley, a consummate pro who has worked miracles at Whittier Tech, building an athletic after-thought of a program into a Tech school mega-power.
Bradley was willing to put all he had built on the line at Whittier, just to come home, and was spurned for Graham, a nobody in the coaching ranks.
I admit. As much as I liked Graham from the first meeting, I wanted to see Bradley get his chance. I pegged Graham to fail.
Man, was I a dope.
D-O-P-E, and not the cool, hip-hope dope. Just a dope.
Graham injected life, vitality and confidence immediately into a program that was seemingly catatonic.
“I always had respect for the Methuen athlete, well before I got here,” said Graham. “I knew it wouldn’t take long to change things.”
Graham turned heads, instilling the two-platoon system. There were snickers last year when Superman in Ranger Royal Blue - Derek Marsan - didn’t play offense.
Graham got the last laugh, of course, in the 7-4 season.
To some, the Ranger resurgence isn’t a surprise.
Cal Carroll might as well be deemed Mr. Methuen, a three-sport kid who has known the varsity wars since his freshman year.
He wasn’t the least bit discouraged when Graham took over.
“First, I knew we had some athletes in my class and the one ahead of me, so I knew the talent was there,” said Carroll. “But all this comes from Coach Graham and the other coaches. They work us hard in practice and demand that we work at it. I knew it wasn’t going to take long.
Returning just six starters from last year, he has again built a defense that opposing coaches admire for its grit and tenacity.
At least a half-dozen times last night, it looked like Andrew Ouellette or Zack Lattrell or Tommy Lacroix might sail to open space, only to have the hole sealed by a hungry Ranger.
One giant key to the defense?
How about Carroll and the guys on the first offense.
“They go against Cal every day,” said Graham. “So our defense has to be pretty good.”
The world seems right again, at least on a football plane. Methuen High is back.
Central-Methuen again means the world to these athletes. “They’re obviously our biggest rival,” said Carroll.
So far in Methuen, Graham has been nothing short of Golden.
All right, some notes from the Friday night thriller.
Lame officiating moment of the night in a game laden with them: Central’s Andrew Ouellette breaks of a sick, I MEAN SICK!!!!, 44-yard run (You should have seen the ankle-breaking cut he made in traffic at the line of scrimmage. My joints ache just thinking about it) and gets hauled down out of bounds on the Central sideline.
Now I was blocked by traffic, so I didn’t see it clearly, but from what I can surmise there was a little extra something for Ouellette in the pileup and he retaliated.
A flag flies and Central gets jacked for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike call. No problem for me, the Raider coaches erupt.
The Raider coaches are pleading that Ouellette first got smacked in the face and was retaliating.
Here’s the lame part, the official comes over and basically explains that it’s always the second guy that gets caught.
It was a lousy explanation, one that couldn’t have made Chuckie A a happy man at that point.
Yes, I too was shocked to see Dracut High scouts, holding clipboards and wearing Middie gear, while scouting the game standing right on the sideline.
I guess it’s legal, but is it ethical?
Interesting take from Central hoop coach Rick Nault when I brought up the anti-Central sentiment and a potential move afoot to jettison the Raiders from the MVC.
First off, Nault spoke the obvious. Central has too many supporters in high places.
Second, and he’s right, without Central the league becomes just another league. Like ‘em or hate ‘em, Central gives the league a certain cache, kind of like Ric Flair gave the NWA in the 1980s and 90s.
Woo!
Finally, Nault sent a warning shot, “You can tell all the MVC coaches, if they kick us out, don’t even call me for non-league games, because I’m not playing you.”
So Methuen, Lawrence, Andover and Lowell would all be kissing a giant rival goodbye.
Baseball coach Marc Pelletier would not commit to that pledge, but he did show some unity with Nault, high-fiving him when the last statement was made.
Can I vent once more on the Ranger unis?
The Royal blue is nice, but it needs help. I can remember an old Methuen High hockey jersey I once “found” up at the rink. I loved that jersey, it was Royal, with just a touch of gold.
Royal and White craves a third color … gold, black, silver, something to make it pop. I think of how good Florida’s Nike royal stands out with the orange.
Seriously, coach Graham, you now have a first-class program. The time has come to look like it. Give me a call some time and I can help you out with some design tips to make the Rangers really pop.
Elsewhere, a gritty effort by the Knights of NA, knocking off Wilmington.
A former nose guard/punter in my day, I get a kick out of the king size kickers. And man, 250-plus pounders Dan Cormier at Methuen and Dylan Lurvey for North Andover, have gotten the job done.
Can anyone North of the border please explain this: Manchester Central 45, Salem 7????
I’m dumbfounded by that result.
Best of luck to Kevin Bradley and the Whittier Tech Wildcats Saturday at Manchester Essex in what should be a war. You know, I thought about all you people pounding for putting KB’s Kitties in my Fantastic Four this week.
Folks, they are undefeated. And if they played on a neutral field, I’d like their chances against NA, Lawrence, Londonderry and Andver. I really would.
Wish I could be there today, but it is Breeders Cup Saturday you know.
OK, enough for one night.
Awesome job, Methuen and Central. If you were there, you understand how special this one was.
