Off Tackle

David Willis

WEST ANDOVER — Greater Lawrence's Wadscar Gomez could feel the change when he walked onto the practice field last week.

"It's pretty different," he said. "Everybody is looking at me now. It's different from (two) weeks ago when I wasn't even playing."

Two weeks ago, the senior halfback had not carried the ball a single time in the Reggies' first three games. But once he was given the chance to run, he emerged as the starting back that Greater Lawrence was looking for.

"Wadscar is a man of few words," said Reggies coach Tony Sarkis. "He just does what he needs to do, and gets the job done."

But expectations were not very high for Gomez when he first joined the program as a freshman.

"In his first two seasons, it just wasn't clicking for him," said Sarkis. "You wanted to keep him around because he was a good guy. He turned it around a little last year, but he was about 130 pounds."

After not appearing in a varsity game as a sophomore, Gomez appeared in just one as a junior, carrying 11 times for 65 yards late in Greater Lawrence's 41-26 blowout of North Shore Tech.

He did begin to open eyes the following winter, emerging as a contributor to Sarkis' powerhouse wrestling team, taking second at 130 pounds at the Commonwealth Conference meet. He then went to work preparing for football, running and lifting every day.

" He worked so hard," said his sophomore brother, Greater Lawrence starting quarterback Juan Carlos Gomez. "He worked twice as hard as me. Even when the preseason started he'd run for 30 minutes before practice and lift after. Wadscar really motivated me."

Gomez, however, was not initially in the mix to replace record-setting Nate Adames when the season began. The Reggies fielded three different leading rushers in their first three games, all losses.

"It was frustrating," said Gomez, the 12th of 17 different Reggies to carry the football this fall. "I was thinking, 'Coach, I'm not getting any carries. Give me a shot.'"

Finally, in Week 4 against Minuteman on Oct. 4, Gomez earned his opportunity.

"At the Minuteman game I went to him and told him, 'We're going with you,'" said Sarkis. "I think the confidence knowing he'd be playing the whole game helped.

"I had no expectations at all, but I thought by the end of the first quarter we would find out if we had our running back or not."

Gomez admits butterflies were in his stomach after the news.

"The pressure was on to show the coach what I could do," he said. "I really had to perform. I told myself that I had been preparing for this all summer, and I have the capability to do it."

Once the 17-year-old hit the field, he proved he was more than capable. Gomez carried 32 times for a whopping 193 yards and a pair of 9-yard touchdowns. That led the Reggies to their first win of the season, 26-12 over the Mustangs.

"Every carry was more and more fun," said the 5-foot-8, 160-pounder. "And being there with my brother was special. I'm not going to say I'm a power runner, but if I have to go at someone I will. If I can avoid him to get a few extra yards, I will. I learned a lot from watching Nate (Adames)."

Sarkis said the atmosphere is different at practice now that the team has found a top back in Gomez, who followed up his big day with 61 yards against Northeast last Saturday.

"You hear all the kids talking about how Wadscar stepped up," he said. "It makes everyone feel he is a go-to guy that can pick up important yards."

Pentucket posting zeros

With its 19-0 win over Ipswich last Friday, Pentucket posted its fourth consecutive shutout this season. Since The Eagle-Tribune began keeping complete records in 1986, no Sachems team has shut out that many opponents in a row.

However, it did not match the school record for shutouts in a season. The 2001 and 2005 teams each posted five shutouts. This season is the fifth in which the Sachems have shut out four teams, and the 1999 Division 4 Super Bowl-winning team blanked three. The 2005 team also had three shutouts in a row.