PEABODY— The Peabody Tanners playoff run ended this past Friday night losing to Winchester 35-27 in the state tournament. But despite the playoff loss, there were positives to take out of this season.

“It’s been a down season for us as far as the record goes because the last two years we went 10 and one and had as many losses as we did this year,” Tanners coach Mark Bettencourt said. “It’s a little disappointing for the kids, we want to keep the program winning and keep that winning culture and our record does not reflect how well we played. We lost a couple of heartbreakers on big plays made late in the game by us, and big plays made by the opposing teams and you like to be on the winning side of those late scores and we have been on the other side of that.” 

Although it wasn’t the season the Tanners envisioned a few months back, there were some key players who stepped up.

“Jimmy Festa had a big year for us on the offensive and defensive line. Jayce Jean-Pierre had a good year for us defensively, the Santos backfield of Gabryel and Caio really helped us with our ground game,” Bettencourt said.

The senior class had a lot of success and rarely tasted defeat. Even through defeat, Bettencourt believes that there are positives to take from the hard work and preparation throughout the fall. 

“The success they had as sophomores and juniors really made me feel like hard work pays off and you know the record sometimes can overshadow the hard work and the lesson I think that this senior class learned is, that you could work as hard as you can and you could do things the right way and it doesn’t always work out the way you wanted to work out. That doesn’t take away from the effort that you put in, the pride that you take in and preparation, things don’t always go the way you want them to go and that’s a life lesson,” Bettencourt said. 

Being that it was an up-and-down season, there were plenty of positives to take, but also some negatives that hurt the overall record. 

“We had a couple of moments that stood out, some of them were wins and some of them were losses. For this team thinking back to the Danvers game we went down 21-0 in the first quarter and then fought back and to make it 21-20 and the decision that I made to go for two and for us to convert to make it 22-21 it was probably one of the most exciting moments of the season,” Bettencourt said. “Unfortunately Danvers ran back the kickoff for a touchdown and kind of ruined that, but for me, that moment when we scored the two-point conversion to come back from three touchdowns down really made me happy for our players to have their hearts broken 20 seconds later was probably one of the worst moments.”

“Coming back in that Danvers game and showing resilience, not giving up and continuing to fight meant a lot to me. The final touchdown in the Beverly game that gave us a 14-7 win in Beverly was another great moment for us seeing Jayce Jean-Pierre catch a pass, break a tackle, and get in the endzone late in the game to give us a lead. We were losing in that game 7-0 and coming back and winning that game meant a lot,” Bettencourt said.

The wins might not have stacked up in the way the Tanners wanted, but there was no questioning the team’s heart and willingness to fight until the final whistle.

Peabody will have two more games to close out the year and they’re back on the gridiron this Friday when it hosts Chelmsford at 7 p.m. 

“…This week we play Chelmsford who is a really good Merrimack Valley team and they’re a great example of not judging a team by the record. They didn’t qualify for the state tournament because they only won two games, but if you look at their schedule they played some juggernauts and this is another game that we’re gonna have to try to find a way to play well, get us to the fourth quarter and then find a way to win,” Bettencourt said. “It will be no different on Thanksgiving morning, the way this season is gonna end, it’s going to be a couple of dog fights and our kids have to realize just because we’re not playing for a Super Bowl, there still is a lot to play for.” 

Peabody will play on Thanksgiving this year at Saugus at 10 a.m. in what will be the senior’s last game repping the blue and white.

“Every year, it’s not unique to us, but you would like the seniors to come off the field one last time as winners,” Bettencourt said.

Owen Finn is a student at Endicott College studying journalism