Ipswich barrels over Manchester

ACTON -- It pays to be playing your best football at the most opportune time.

That's certainly the case for Ipswich, which landed a spot in the Division 3A Super Bowl by steamrolling Manchester-Essex, 34-0, at Acton-Boxboro's Leary Field yesterday.

"It feels excellent," said Tigers junior lineman Chris Tolios. "We dedicated our season to this goal, and we're coming through. Now we've got one more game left."

The Tigers will try to capture their first Super Bowl victory since 1992, when they meet Cape Cod Tech Saturday at a site to be announced today.

Ipswich is 3-0 in Super Bowl appearances, and this group says it has no intention of putting a blot on that record.

"We don't want to make it the first," said senior tailback Ryan Gagnon, who enjoyed one of the finest games of his career.

In all, Gagnon (129 yards on eight carries) scooted to three touchdowns, scoring from 43, 35, and 5 yards.

Backfield mate Steve Phaneuf ran for touchdowns of 35 yards and 1 yard, and gained 81 yards on seven carries, all in the first half.

Both were the beneficiaries of huge holes ripped open by the front five, which dominated Manchester-Essex the entire game.

"It's awesome when you see a big hole," said Gagnon. "No one's around you. You know you've got the whole field to run."

The inability of Manchester-Essex to gain any kind of foothold at the line of scrimmage made for a long afternoon.

"We had hoped to put the ball in the end zone early to put a little pressure on them," said Hornets coach Mike Athanas. "But it didn't work out that way."

Indeed. The Manchester-Essex offense was held to minus-8 yards in the first half, and that took into a a 22-yard scramble by quarterback Pat Orlando.

Ipswich was in control from the outset, scoring on its first two possessions.

Phaneuf accounted for both, the first when he picked his way through the line, then made a beeline for the end zone.

Then, after the defense held Manchester-Essex to three and out, Phaneuf capped a four-play, 50-yard drive with a 1-yard dive to make it 13-0.

"It's amazing," said Phaneuf, "because we've been working hard all year. We knew that if we put it all together tonight we could do it, and that's what we did. It's great right now to know that everything's clicking together. All that practice time pays off now."

The Tigers increased the lead to 27-0 by halftime, as Gagnon was sprung loose for a pair of long TD dashes.

"Gagnon and Phaneuf are phenomenal," said Tolios. "Blocking for them is phenomenal. You don't even have to block. You just turn around and watch them go. They make the plays by themselves."

Gagnon tacked on his last scoring run on the opening drive of the second half. By then, the Tigers' weekend plans were all but settled.

They were going "bowling".

"There's no better feeling," said Gagnon. "We've wanted this since we were little kids. Now we finally made our dream come true."