Elegant? No. A win? Yes. I think several things led to a very flat win: (1) a let down after Loyola, (2) a fired up Saugus team and crowd, (3) Hart players underestimating their opponent, and (4) the return of a somewhat rusty Lyon. But a win is a win.

Here's the play by play.

Hart's Weinstein put the ball into the end zone and Saugus started on the 20: run by Summers (the QB) for 3, run by Summers for 2 and then, on his first pass attempt, an interception by Wheeler which was returned about 20 yards to the Saugus 25.

Hart: incomplete, run by Howell for 7, incomplete and then on fourth down, a nice pass which was dropped (a problem for Hart throughout the evening). [Total time of possession: less than 40 seconds]

Saugus took over at the 18: run by Skinner (?) for -1, run by Summers for 3, pass to Stevenson for 23, run by Summers for 3, run by Begara (?) for 3, pass on a very nice slant to Stevenson for 12, run by Summers for 5, incomplete, run by Begara for 4, run by Skinner for 2, run by Begara for 2 and then a pass to Stevenson for 26 and the touchdown. Eleven plays, 82 yards, almost seven and a half minutes on the clock and it was Saugus 7-0 at 2:56 of the first quarter.

Hart at the 20: run by Howell for 4, incomplete on another drop, incomplete and punt. [Total time of possession: about 30 seconds].

Saugus at the 36: run by Begara for 3 plus a "little" facemask penalty; run by Begara for 3, run by Begara for 9, run by Summers for 2 [END OF QUARTER], run by Begara for 8, run by Summers for 4, run by Skinner for 7, run by Begara for 1, run by Summers for 3, incomplete, run by Begara for 0, run by Summers for 10 and on fourth down and inches at the Hart 9, run by Begara for -2.

Hart at the 11: run by Howell for 9, run by Lyon (sneak) for 5 and then, for the first time this season, an awkward snap to a QB in the shotgun. Lyon managed to pull it down but Saugus recovered at the Hart 18. [A little over a minute of possession for Hart.]

Saugus at the Hart 18: run by Summers for 5, run by Skinner for 1, run by Summers for 4, run by Summers for 3. On the next play, Summers ran it for 3 down to the Hart 2 but a holding call moved it out back out to the 12; run by Summers for 4, run by Summers (?) for 6 down to the Hart 2 and then a FUMBLE recovered by Hart on the 1.

Hart started at the 1 with 2:30 left in the half: run by Howell for 2, run by Howell for 4, pass to Yudin for 16, pass to Yudin for 12, pass to Wheeler for 3, pass to Embree for 17, incomplete (spike), pass to Embree for 10, incomplete, incomplete, pass to Yudin for 13, incomplete (drop in the end zone) then another huge bugaboo for Hart all season: penalties. On 2d down at the 22 and 19 seconds left, Hart was called for a holding. The impact was negated by a pass interference by Saugus. On the repeat of down, Hart was called for offensive pass interference (from my perspective it looked like the right call), for minus 15 AND loss of down. Apparently, the Hart coaches saw it differently and ended up with another 15 yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct (it seems that the comments were not directed at the referee but he overheard them and called the penalty). The net effect is that the ball ended up on the Hart 47 with 7 seconds left. An unsuccessful Hail Mary ended the half.

Lyon started off of the mark and when he got on, his receivers just flat dropped the ball. There were penalties, a poor snap and drops: everything on offense was just a little out of sync.

Lyon finished the half at 6 of 15 for 72 yards. Hart rushed for 26 yards on 7 carries for a total of 98 yards.

Saugus completely dominated the first quarter of play through a series of short gains, all down the middle of the field which kept the clock running. Hart had the ball about a minute. Hart had the ball only four minutes in the second quarter for a total of a little over five minutes in the entire half.

Saugus' Summers was 3 of 6 for 61 yards, a TD and an INT in the first half. Saugus rushed for 101 yards on 30 carries with one fumble. However, the bulk of those yards were in the second drive and became increasingly tough after the first couple of possessions.

Hart took the second half kickoff and got a 29-yard return by Howell out to the 30: incomplete, pass to Yudin for 32 down to the Saugus 38. Howell ran one in from there but it was called back on a holding which netted 9 yards on the run; run by Howell for 2, pass to Casselberry for 3, run by Howell for 24 and the TD. 7-7 at 10:19 of the third quarter.

Saugus at the 20: Begara for 3, Summers for 3 and then SACK for -2 and punt.

Hart got a 14-yard return by Wheeler and started at the Saugus 46: pass to Casselberry for -2, SACK for -8, pass to Casselberry for 20, run by Howell for 3, pass to Embree for 9, run by Howell for 4, pass to Embree for 5, run by Lyon (sneak) for 1, run by Howell for 4, run by Lyon for 11 and the TD. Hart 14-7 at 2:43.

Saugus once again started at the 20: run by Summers for 2, penalty for illegal procedure, run by Begara for 6, pass to McIntyre for 11, SACK for -1 [END OF THIRD QUARTER], run by Hamilton for 8, run by Begara for 2 and punt (and a very nice roll).

Hart started at the 9: run by Howell for 16, incomplete, run on a pitch/option by Howell (Lyon really got clobbered) for -2, pass to Yudin for 16, pass to Yudin for 14, run by Howell for 10, run by Howell for 4, incomplete, run by Howell for 2 and on fourth down from the Saugus 32, an interception.

Saugus started at the 30: run by Summers for 5, run by Hamilton for 4, run by Summers for 2, run by Summers for 2, run by Skinner for 5, run by Skinner for 2. At this point Saugus made its one and only foray into Hart territory in the second half -- to the Hart 49 and then immediately got called for an illegal procedure on 4th down trying to draw Hart offsides and moved by to the Saugus 46. On the repeat of fourth down and about 6, Summers pass went for only 5 and Hart took over.

Hart at the Hart 49: run by Howell for 4, run by Howell for 1, run by Howell for 1, delay of game penalty (deliberate, trying to draw Saugus offsides) and punt.

Saugus at the 19 with 1:17 to go: pass to Begara for 29 yards and then INTERCEPTION by Wheeler of a halfback option pass by Skinner.

Hart started at the 21: run by Howell for 0, run by Casselberry for 4, run by Casselberry for 8 and then a knee by Lyon to end the game.

Comments: It's baffling how, with great consistency, about every four years, Saugus really gives Hart a tough time. In 1992, Saugus thumped a favored Hart team. In 1997, Hart (11-2) squeaked by Saugus (2-8) 21-14 when a single controversial call might have changed the game. In 2001, Hart (13-0) won 35-28 when the Indians scored in the last minute and then Matt Moore intercepted a Saugus (6-5) pass in the endzone to seal the Hart win. And now 2005.

In the second half, Lyon was 8 of 12 for 96 yards and one INT. He finished the night at 14 of 27 and 168 yards, no TDs and 1 INT.

Summers finished at 6 of 10 for 106 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. (Skinner had the other INT on a halfback option pass).

Saugus controlled the first half in large measure because they kept grinding out first downs and Hart never got the ball for long. The Indians did a pretty good job of shooting themselves in the foot with an unforced turnover (the errant snap) and a couple of dumb penalties which took the Indians from a possible TD to a 30-yard deficit.

The second half was completely dominated by Hart. Saugus' QB was sacked twice and Wheeler got his second INT of the night. Saugus managed only 39 yards rushing in the entire second half and 40 yards passing, virtually all of it on one play. The Centurions got into Hart territory once. While Saugus' O-line controlled things through the first third of the game, that was not the case thereafter when the Hart defense really got rolling.

Saugus needed to play a near flawless game given the offensive scheme they employed (ball control with almost no big play possibility). One got the feeling that Hart's narrow miss at the end of the first half and then the immediate scores to start the second half took the wind out of Saugus' offensive sails. They did very little after that.

Some positives for Hart: Howell generally ran very aggressively, always moving forward and had some nice yards. Lyon was streaky, starting badly but after getting some rhythm, really connected well. The defense really toughened up as the game progressed. Hart has now fallen behind in 5 of 6 games and has come back to take the lead in every one thanks to an increasingly tough defense. The O-line shows signs of complete dominance sometimes and generally kept the rushers at bay giving up only one sack. Weinstein's kicking was basically perfect: all three kickoffs into the endzone, both punts were non-returnable (a nice high 40+ yarder and then one inside the 20 that was a fair catch) and two PATs.

The only problem was that the offense was generally not quite in sync. Dropped passes that were right on the money and untimely penalties were killers.

All and all I would go with the words of Admiral Spruance of Midway fame. When asked about the war, his comments were succinct: "We won." That's about all that should be said here.

Some questions: How is Burton? His presence is missed on the defensive line. How's Larimore? His presence was missed among the linebackers. How's Casselberry? He got very little playing time. What about that option/pitch play to Howell? Hart has run it twice lately with Lyon at QB. The first time was against Birmingham and he ended up with a concussion. The second time was tonight and he got smacked again. Is someone blowing an assignment? Is it a poorly executed play or is it just a flawed design against certain defensive alignments? What ever it is, it ought to be fixed. Lyon takes way too much of a beating on that play.

Next week Burroughs, a team that gave Valencia an unexpectedly bad time.

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