Currier, South Gridders Win To Advance in House Playoffs

Yesterday afternoon on Soldiers Field the House tackle football playoffs entered their second day with the Quad Houses taking it to the River folks.

On Monday, Mather-Dunster beat Eliot, 14-0.

Both Currier and South came away yesterday with hard-fought victories, moving them one step closer to the House championship.

The game of the day was the Currier-Lowell House showdown, a contest that pitted the powerhouse Quadlings against the supposedly weaker 11 from Lowell.

But from the beginning it was clear that Lowell was no pushover. The Bellboys held firmly on defense; after a defensive pass interference call in the end zone put the ball on the Currier two in the second quarter, Lowell pushed across the first score of the game in the second quarter. Halfback Carlos Rodriguez powered over for the touchdown and teammate Mark Moreland added the two-point conversion, and Lowell led at halftime 8-0.

The second half was dominated by tenacious defense, and just when it looked like Lowell would pull off a major upset, Currier quarterback John Frederick threw a 25-yard bullet to Sam Buchanan, who was standing alone in the endzone. Skip Gillom tied the contest as he went over on the conversion, and regulation ended at 8-8.

Sudden-death overtime consisted of four chances for each team to score from their opponents' 10-yard line.

Lowell went first, and on third and eight converted to take a 14-8 lead (the extra-point attempt missed). Currier scored on its second play from scrimmage, as Norm Rice dragged three Lowell tacklers with him into the endzone. Rice repeated the performance on the conversion, and Currier had pulled out a 16-14 squeaker.

Currier Coach Mike Shaw did not expect to encounter so much opposition from the usually meek Lowell squad. "We played well, but they came out and played really inspired football. We had a real scare," he said.

The day's second game started out as a defensive battle, resulting in a scoreless first half. But at the start of the third quarter. SoHo benefited from a bad punt snap on the Kirkland goal line, and the ball rolled out of bounds for a safety and a 2-0 South lead.

South increased its lead to 10-0 when Andy Stoebner ran 18 yards around right end after the ensuing K-House punt, and Joe Raposos caught a pass from Todd Truesdale to complete the two-point conversion. An interception by Steve Black on Kirkland's next series wrapped the game up for SoHo.