Jack's Back: Healthy again, sophomore leads Norwell football to roaring win over Abington

ABINGTON – The Norwell High football team's bye week came at just the right time.

The time off granted the Clippers a chance to stew on its most recent loss, a 35-point drubbing to Scituate at home that junior lineman Dylan Varekamp described as "embarrassing," while also buying time for starting quarterback Jack Luccarelli to heal up from a broken thumb injury that he suffered in the preseason.

"With two weeks to prepare, sometimes you might over-prepare," head coach John Willis said.

Instead, they over-delivered.

Luccarelli rushed for three touchdowns as Norwell earned a resounding 28-7 victory over Abington on the road on Friday. It was the sophomore's first action of the season after watching the first three games in street clothes on the sideline.

“It felt great to be back," Luccarelli said. "It felt great to back with all my guys. I love every one of them. Don’t give me all the credit. My line was pushing people around.”

Varekamp joined senior center Ryan Daly, senior tackle Thomas Regan, junior guard Brian Schindler, senior Shiv Kelly and senior Luke Peden to assemble a trench unit that anchored not only a four-TD day in the ground game but also a defense that pitched a shutout after Abington's opening drive in the first quarter.

“I think we’re the best unit in the league when we all work together. We were all on tonight," Schindler said. "That’s what we should expect going forward. We’ve got Jack back, and that’s a big asset for us. We played as a family tonight, not as a football team.”

Following Abington's opening drive touchdown (a two-yard pass from senior QB Michael Reilly to junior Mason Nash), Luccarelli responded less than three minutes later with a 38-yard dash through traffic to the end zone at the 1:46 mark of the first quarter.

Luccarelli was not wearing a brace on his right throwing hand, rather a light wrapping of black tape. He suffered the broken thumb during a preseason scrimmage vs. Pembroke on August 29, and doctors evaluated a 4-6 week timeline for his comeback. Junior Keegan O'Hare quarterbacked the team to a 2-1 start in Luccarelli's absence.

“Getting Jack back certainly helps us offensively, though Keegan did a fabulous job," Willis said.

Luccarelli rallied to score a TD from seven yards out to give the Clippers a 14-7 halftime lead, and another from four yards out to stamp the final margin of victory with 6:18 to play.

“He’s not a sophomore, that’s for sure," Willis said of Luccarelli with a chuckle. "And he wasn’t a freshman last year, either. He’s a great athlete. We were patient with (the injury), and he understood. We wanted to get him healthy and not take any risks. ... But you can see in the run game, certainly, he adds a big dynamic to it.  He’s just explosive, athletic, big, strong and fast.”

Senior workhorse running back Will Bostrom added an 8-yard score of his own with 10:18 to go in the fourth, a highlight that put Norwell ahead 21-7 and came in sequence with the Clippers' defense forcing four Abington turnovers-on-downs and one punt.

The exclamation point was an interception reeled in by junior defensive back Matt Panttila on a Green Wave heave to the end zone with 2:45 remaining.

“They got us a bit in the first half, and we responded instantly," Varekamp said of the defense. "I love that out of us.”

“I was happy with it," Willis said of the outing. "We had other things that we were thinking about doing (schematically during the bye week), but when push came to shove, it was our basic stuff. The kids stepped up and played great.”

The win is likely to vault Norwell into the Division 6 tournament picture after it was ranked No. 18 in the latest power rankings release (the top 16 seeds qualify). Abington came into play at No. 9 and East Bridgewater, which the Clippers host on Nov. 1, sits still undefeated at No. 12.

“For us, it’s big,” Willis said of the win. “I think it’s confidence. We lost a lot of guys from last year, especially the lines up front. On both sides of the ball, the line played great. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Jack's Back: Healthy again, sophomore leads Norwell football to roaring win over Abington