Following the 40-13 loss to powerhouse King Philip in Norfolk on Sept. 13, Marblehead High football coach Jim Rudloff was not that disappointed, when he said, “I definitely see improvements in some areas, and we have to continue to get better each day.” Those “improvements” were on full display in the home opener against Shepherd Hill Regional last Friday night at Piper.
When football teams score 55 points and defenses shutdown the opposition for three-plus quarters that included two turnovers, dominant wins are the norm. And that’s what happened to the visiting Rams.
COURTESY PHOTO / MUFFY PAQUETTE
They were on the short end of a 55-8 final score that also broke Marblehead’s two-game losing streak.
The football Magicians weren’t too kind to their non-league western Mass. counterparts, who went limping to the bus — not literally — for that long ride back to Dudley after getting blitzed by Rudloff’s crew. It was Shepherd Hill’s second straight loss in as many games to begin the season. Concord-Carlisle defeated them the previous week, 27-16.
The Marblehead boys wasted little time to move the ball downfield, before senior Yandel Garcia scored the team’s first touchdown of the game from nine yards out. Sophomore Finbar Bresnahan then successfully booted his first of seven extra points in this game for a 7-0 lead at 6:22 of the first quarter.
After the Rams offense temporarily confused the Marblehead defense with a bunch of misdirection no-huddle trick running plays that resulted in their lone touchdown of the game followed by a successful two-point try to give them a brief 8-7 one-point lead at 1:25 of the opening stanza, the home team immediately regained the lead, which they never relinquished. On the second play from scrimmage, senior quarterback Colt Wales faked a handoff before pitching it to classmate Crew Monaco, who sprinted 46 yards all the way to the endzone. The first quarter ended with the Magicians in front, 14-8.
“Once we called that play, I knew we were going to break out. We had a lot of guys in the box, so if our receivers did their jobs blocking, we were going to succeed. I read one of those blocks, and took it to the outside,” Monaco explained in describing his go-ahead first quarter touchdown.
“We kept it really simple after that, particularly on defense,” he added. “We just knew after every play we needed to reset and shift to the next play. We knew they were going to run some motion plays and stuff like that, but I thought we did a really good job keeping our composure,” he added.
Wales offered his explanation of the go-ahead first quarter touchdown. “That touchdown to Crew was a brand-new play that we put in during practice that week,” Colt said. “Before the snap, I looked at the box, and saw they loaded it with seven or eight kids. They didn’t have any outside backer it seemed the whole night. I knew if I could get that pitch out to Crew in space, he would make it happen.
“(Assistant) Coach (Mike) Giardi always tells the quarterbacks to get the ball out to your playmakers, and I did just that by pitching it to Crew,” added Wales. “After they scored that touchdown, we (as a defense) knew what we had to do. We didn’t say anything special. The coaches trust us to do the right thing, and as players we got the job done, not letting them score after that. There were things on defense that could have been better, and throughout the course of the game it did get better.”
The Marblehead boys tacked on 20 more unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 34-8 lead at halftime. Sam Thompson was on the receiving end of a six-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Finn Gallup to account for the first of three scores in that period for the home team.
After senior Drew Goldman recovered a Shepherd Hill fumble on the visitors’ 29, Wales, who took his turn behind center, eventually scored on a four-yard run.
With 1:36 left in the first half, senior captain Bodie Smith intercepted the ball on the Rams’ 35. It was Gallup’s turn to quarterback the offense, and with three seconds left, he hooked up with senior Cam Quigley for a 14-yard scoring strike.
The Marblehead offense was not done yet. They went on to score three more touchdowns in the second half to eclipse the mythical 50-point threshold that turned this home opener into an official rout.
Garcia began the game with a touchdown, and he once again got it going in the second half with a 70-yard power run for six more points on the second play from scrimmage.
Six minutes after that score at 5:23 of the third quarter, senior Bernardo Bannis busted through the Rams’ defense that resulted in a 44-yard run to paydirt.
The Magicians still had one more touchdown in them. It occurred at the 5:05 mark of the fourth quarter, when sophomore Oscar Galante made his first varsity touchdown something to remember. Galante scampered an electrifying 83 yards for those six points.
For that matter, this home opener won’t be forgotten by those who witnessed it. But the team has to quickly put it behind them, because they have another critical non-league contest ahead of them Friday night (Sept. 27) against Merrimack Valley Conference powerhouse North Andover on the road in Scarlet Knights country, starting at 7 p.m. Another win by the Magicians would even their record at two, just before they begin the Northeastern Conference schedule. Momentum would definitely be on their side.
“It felt really good to play on the new turf; I mean playing at Piper Field is a blessing when you have some of the best fans in the state cheering you on, even in the rain,” said Monaco. “I think the difference in this game against Shepherd Hill was that we needed this one. We knew starting the season with three losses like last year would be a big hill to climb, and as a result this home opener was a must win.
“North Andover has a really good program, and they beat us last year,” added Monaco. “But I think this win is definitely going to give us confidence going into this game on a tough opponent’s home field. We’ll be practicing hard this week, and I know the boys will be fired up for another much-needed win.”
Colt added that the difference in this game against Shepherd Hill was that they had to win. “It was nothing more than that,” he said after the home opener. “The second we lost to King Philip, the focus shifted to Shepherd Hill. There wasn’t anything special we did in practice or walkthroughs, but the team
was ready this week. One big thing is our Thursday practices. We need to have good Thursday practices or else we won’t have a good game, and Thursday was a fantastic practice before the home opener. The boys focused up for the game, and I’m very proud of that.
“Momentum is all it is against North Andover. We know what we are capable of doing now. If we can carry this momentum like we did last year, we’re going to be hard to stop,” Colt added. “The North Andover game will be a dogfight, but we are already preparing for it. It will be a fun one.”
