For the fans of the Panthers (4-5, ninth seed), the 70-minute ride from Whitman-Hanson High School to Piper Field in Marblehead for a Division 3 Round of 16 playoff game probably seemed a lot longer on the way home after the Magicians (7-1, eighth seed) dispatched their South Shore counterparts to the tune of 35-0 on Friday night, Nov. 4.
Marblehead opened up its Division 3 Super Bowl title defense with a solid effort on both sides of the ball, earning a spot in the Elite 8 versus top-seeded Milton (8-0) on Nov. 11, starting at 6 p.m. in Milton. The Wildcats defeated Minnechaug (4-5, 16th seed), 46-21, in its playoff opener.
The game will also feature a Northeastern Conference reunion of sorts, because the home team is coached by former Swampscott Big Blue coach Steve Dembowski. Dembowski certainly knows something about the pressures of playoff football after guiding the Big Blue past Medfield, 22-6, for the 2007 EMass Super Bowl championship at Gillette Stadium. He’d like nothing better than to knock off the defending champs to take that next step to the home of the New England Patriots.
Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff obviously has other ideas, and considering how his team dominated Whitman-Hanson, who can blame him?
The Panthers went for some trickery on their first possession with a fake punt, but it went nowhere, and one play later Marblehead took the lead when quarterback Miles O’Neill found captain Zander Danforth open downfield to account for the 35-yard scoring play.
Eddie Johns then made it a two-touchdown advantage after scampering 16 yards to the end zone on Marblehead’s next possession.
Johns wasn’t done scoring touchdowns in the first half, however. He got into the end zone from the 3 to complete three straight successful touchdown drives for the home team, who led at halftime, 21-0. Greg Motorny made all three extra points after each touchdown to help account for that score.
Things did not get better for the visitors in the third quarter. O’Neill hooked up with Chris DeWitt with a short pass from their own 1 that turned into a 99-yard touchdown.
Finally, Marblehead’s all-purpose playmaker Connor Cronin put the finishing touches on the Panthers in the fourth quarter, scoring from 5 yards out.
Marblehead captain Nick Whitaker said that the team put in the work during the week to get ready for Whitman-Hanson. Having dozens of players with playoff experience certainly didn’t hurt, either.
“The offense was running smoothly,” added Whitaker. “We were able to keep our mouths shut and play football. We just play our game, while ignoring all the chirping they were doing. We knew we had a job to do, and we did it. We pulled it out by executing our game plan to perfection.”
Whitaker continued, “We definitely have the playoff experience, so it’s not like we’re going into our first playoff game. This year, we’ve lots of young guys playing, but we also have a lot of older guys who have been there before, so we really didn’t have the butterflies. We were excited going into this one, and we knew what we had to do to get a win.
Whitaker said the players were “flying around” in practice all week.
“We were definitely ready for this one, and to keep going in these playoffs, we’ve to keep the energy up, focus on our execution and play hard,” Whitaker said. “If we do that, it will hopefully lead us to where we want to go.”
But now, the Marblehead boys go on the road to face another team that’d love to knock them off. Milton, however, will soon find out the task is never easy to eliminate the defending champs.
