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Family... Food... & FOOTBALL!!!!! sportsWIRE has news & notes on three of the thanksGIVING footBALL Games!!! 102nd Meeting : Salem High School Witches vs. Beverly High School Panthers Hurd Stadium, Beverly, Massachusetts 
Salem rings true for Ringhoff Salem/Beverly Thanksgiving notebook By MIKE GRENIER Salem Evening News staff BEVERLY -- This hasn't been Rob Ringhoff's year. The Salem High senior center was banged up and had missed a few games. But he'd come back from these injuries and, like all of his teammates, was looking forward to playing the traditional Thanksgiving Day game against Beverly. It's a game that no one, a senior in particular, ever wants to miss. But Ringhoff broke an ankle during practice last Friday, ending his season and his Salem High career. Still, his teammates had plenty to play for and Ringhoff was very much on their minds yesterday when Salem socked Beverly, 28-8, at Hurd Stadium in their 102nd meeting. "A lot of the guys decided to dedicate this game to Rob because he couldn't play," said Salem coach Sean Gallagher. "We always have a lot of incentive playing Beverly on Thanksgiving, but this was something extra the kids wanted to do. It's always great to see something like that. We had some adversity (with injuries) throughout the season, but the kids did a real nice job hanging in there and bouncing back." Anthony Furnari, a 5-foot-8, 235-pound junior, replaced Ringhoff at center and was part of a powerful offensive line that pushed Beverly around, allowing main running backs DeWayne Penn, Anthony Valdez and Derek Sprei and quarterback Lito Gonzalez to pile up 286 yards. It would've been much more, but Penn (15 carries, 141 yards, 2 TDs) had a 65-yard scoring run nullified by a penalty. Overall, though, Furnari & Co. ruled on virtually every play. "Lito kind of took Furnari under his wing at practice," noted Gallagher. "We tried 2-3 different kids at center but finally went back to Furnari. Lito just took care of him and made sure he was comfortable with everything we did." Gallagher was especially proud of his seniors, who refused to let Salem look upon itself as a 4-5 team in the days leading up to the Beverly game. Any negativity was weeded out so that the Witches could feel they had the upper hand heading into the game. It was simple psychology, but it worked. "You always hear seniors talking at this time of the year about how it's their last game and their last time playing together," said Gallagher. "We didn't want to hear anything about that. The seniors gave us great leadership in getting ready for Beverly. You should've seen our practices for the last week or so. You would've thought we were undefeated because we were so focused and intense. "All that stuff about playing the last time together can wait until they graduate. Then they can come back and be has-been alumni like me," Gallagher laughed. * * * In a postgame announcement on the field, Salem's Anthony Valdez and Beverly's Pat Belmonte were named the Jason Aucone/Stephen O'Grady Sportsmanship winners in honor of the highly competitive but friendly rivalry that's been promoted between the two schools. It was a tough day for Belmonte, a senior who played his heart out at quarterback and defensive back but whose team was thoroughly outplayed. "They were just too strong for us today," Belmonte said of Salem. "Penn (who finished the season with 968 yards) had a great game. He plowed through us the first time he carried the ball (for a 9-yard gain). It took our whole defense to bring him down. He's like a truck. He can be shifty, too, but he's got all that strength to be a (power) runner." * * * Beverly can probably start getting better by hitting the weight room in the offseason. Gallagher said the Witches worked on "conditioning" in case it came down to a fourth quarter slugfest. That never happened, and it was obvious that Salem just had its way with Beverly up front. "I walked out there and you could see that (Salem) had bigger arms and legs," said Belmonte. "Those weren't fake pads they were wearing." Belmonte thinks Beverly can have a bright future. "We have some juniors who aren't afraid to say things and give rousing speeches," he said. "We have a lot of good kids here who don't cause trouble. It starts with having good kids." * * * Gallagher on Penn's great performance: "He's very, very powerful and he's got God-gifted speed and agility. That makes him very dangerous. He had it all going today." * * * Salem re-took the lead in the all-time series (48-47-7) for the first time since 1996 ... Senior captain Hugh Galligan led the Witches with seven tackles and a sack. Fellow senior Sprei also had seven tackles, while sophomore Marc Lambert was in on six. Junior tackles Marc MacDonald and Luke Vuylsteke, as well as junior strong safety Craig Boaman, each were in on six for Beverly ... The Witches by a wide margin in time of possession, 25:42 to 16:18 ... Sophomore Peter Harrington, Salem's quarterback of the future, lined up under center for two plays in the third quarter. Wearing No. 58 (he's usually an end), Harrington threw an incomplete pass and was dropped for a 4-yard loss ... Chris Felton had a fumble recovery for the visitors, while Boaman, Vuylsteke and junior Scott Gambale fell on loose balls for Beverly ... Since 1978, the two teams are 11-11-1 against each other ... The Witches have won three of the last four games at Hurd Stadium, with the 100th game in 1998, an 8-7 win for Beverly, being the exception. NFL footBALL thanksGIVING noteBOOK : New England Patriots at Detroit Lions Minnesota Vikings at Dallas Cowboys 
New England Patriots 9 Detroit Lions 34 PONTIAC, Mich. (Nov. 23, 2000) — Charlie Batch put on the performance of a gladiator. Playing with ribs bruised by the New England defense, Batch threw for one touchdown and ran for another as Detroit rolled to a 34-9 victory Thursday over the struggling Patriots. "Have you ever seen 'Gladiator?'" asked cornerback Marquis Walker, whose interception of a Drew Bledsoe pass led to a 10-yard TD run by Batch. "Charlie took some shots like Maximus. He showed me he was Maximus today." Batch also threw a TD pass to David Sloan, and Bryant Westbrook returned an interception 101 yards for a score as Detroit put 28 points on the board in the second half to run away from the Patriots (3-9). That made them 3-0 under Gary Moeller, who took over as head coach when Bobby Ross stepped down. "I think we're on a roll," Moeller declared. It came at a welcome time for Detroit (8-4), which inched closer to the playoffs with a daunting stretch ahead — three straight road games against Minnesota, Green Bay and the New York Jets. The Lions have potential tiebreaker wins over New Orleans, Washington and the New York Giants, all of whom also have four losses. But Detroit considered a victory over the struggling Patriots (3-9) important and looked to Batch to deliver. He did, much to the Patriots' dismay. "They opened up and whipped us," New England free safety Larry Whigham said. "We played competitively, but in the third quarter some things got away from us," said New England coach Bill Belichick. That was Batch's doing. With Detroit trailing 9-6, he put the Lions ahead to stay with a 1-yard TD pass to tight end David Sloan on a 4th-and-goal with 3:45 left in that period. On Detroit's next possession, Batch took a crushing shot to the chest from Patriots strong safety Lawyer Milloy, who was penalized 15 yards for roughing. Batch was helped off the field and sat out two plays before returning, then threw 18 yards to Sedrick Irvin to the 1-yard line. After Batch failed to sneak it in, James Stewart dove in for a TD and 20-9 Detroit lead with 11:18 left. Walker then intercepted a Bledsoe pass and returned it 12 yards to the New England 15-yard line. Batch later scored on a 10-yard scramble, pushing the margin to 27-9 and finishing 16 of 24 for 194 yards before he was replaced by Stoney Case. "Charlie showed good toughness out there," Moeller said. "He could at least smile through the pain, and he wanted to be out there. That's what you want to see in a leader. He really got punched, and he kept going back in the game." Westbrook closed out the scoring with 4:13 left, picking off a Bledsoe pass in the end zone and taking it all the way. Detroit's scoring barrage left Patriots defender Willie McGinest disgusted enough to hold a players-only meeting afterward. "I told them that I take these games personally," he said. "Our team has to be accountable for our mistakes. As a team, this can't go on." Bledsoe finished 17 of 32 for 148 yards, but threw the two costly interceptions before being replaced late in the fourth by Tom Brady. "You play to win, and when you lose the game and throw two interceptions it just cuts through the heart," Bledsoe said after playing through a nagging thumb injury on his throwing hand. Jason Hanson kicked field goals from 31 and 36 yards out in two of Detroit's first three possessions, closing out drives that covered a combined 98 yards. New England's Adam Vinatieri countered with field goals from 24 and 47 yards, the latter set up by a Batch fumble during a sack. With a running game ranked second-worst in the league in yards per carry, Bledsoe passed on New England's first nine plays. He threw five times to Terry Glenn, completing three for 50 yards during a 78-yard march that chewed up 7:36 and was capped by Vinatieri's game-tying 24-yard field goal. Herman Moore had four catches for 42 yards for Detroit, including a 20-yarder that pushed him past 9,000 receiving yards over his 10-year career. Notes: The game was New England's first trip to Detroit for Thanksgiving. The Lions have now played 21 different teams in the annual game since the first one in 1934, when the Lions lost 19-16 to Chicago. Detroit's record on the holiday now is 32-27-2 … Lions DT James Jones left the game in the second quarter with a pulled hamstring and did not return … Westbrook's 101-yard interception return tied the longest in Silverdome history — Green Bay's George Teague also had a 101-yard return in the 1993 playoffs … Bledsoe bruised his knee but stayed in the game. Minnesota Vikings 27
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