Triton Upsets Newburyport, 6-0, In Opening Game of Football Season

September 6, 2008

What a difference a year makes!

Last year the Newburyport Clippers completely dominated the Triton Vikings in football and won in a 26-0 romp at Triton’s home field. Last night, Triton, under new coach, Jim O’Leary, returned the favor in a defensive 6-0 win over Newburyport at World War Memorial Stadium, Newburyport’s home field.

The low scoring/almost no scoring game was won by Triton when they capitalized on a Clipper mistake with under four minutes left in the fourth quarter when they intercepted Joe Clancy’s pass and subsequently went on to score the game’s only touchdown. The defensive sides of the ball for both teams played well all night.

For Triton and first year coach, O’Leary, this was the perfect way to start the season, especially after last year’s 1-10 season. Triton played a strong defensive game and applied constant pressure to Joe Clancy all night long. Offensively they operated from an I-formation for most of the game and played basic but sound football.

For Newburyport it had to be a very frustrating evening. From the opening moment of the game when they didn’t get a good handle on Triton’s opening kickoff and the ball ended up going into the end zone to having Joe Clancy sacked multiple times in a row in crucial moments in the fourth quarter, the Clipper’s offense was out of synch all night and never meshed.

The Clippers offensive line provided little protection and even less time for Clancy to set up and launch his aerial passing attack that made him so dangerous last season. One of the parents of a Newburyport football player remarked at the end of the game that he thought Clancy was sacked more times in this game then Clancy had been all of last season. The Clippers burned through a lot of timeouts early in each half and often looked confused out on the field.

For Newburyport, hopefully it was a just a case of first game jitters, nervousness and just not having a good game. Next week they face Saugus at Saugus in an 11:00 am game.

For more coverage of the game, visit Evan Mugford’s description of the game that appeared in the Daily News of Newburyport.