Seven in a row, another dominating performance by the defense and an offense that knows how to move the ball steadily downfield is a definite recipe for success, and the Marblehead High football team (7-2) is hitting on all three, and as a result it’s now onto the Division 4 Elite 8 game against host Grafton (9-0) Friday night (Nov. 15), starting at 6 p.m.
Grafton came into the playoffs as the third seed, while the Magicians were just a couple of notches below them in the sixth spot. The Gators defeated Bedford (5-4, 14th seed) in their Round of 16 game last Friday night, 42-8, while the Magicians were hammering Norwood (4-5, 11 th seed) in their first-round playoff game at Piper Field, 42-6.
After nine games, the Marblehead boys have outscored their opponents, 276-109. In the last seven contests, they have given up just 44 points, while scoring 257. Grafton is undefeated, but with statistics like these, it’d be hard to find a hotter high school football team in the state that’s not named Marblehead.
counterpart to gain a few more yards during the Division 2 Round of 16 game at Piper Field on Nov. 8.
Marblehead High senior captain Colt Wales (2) finds an opening in the line to slip through for a long gainer against Norwood during the Division 2 Round of 16 game at Piper Field on Nov. 8.
Amid windy conditions, the Magicians started slowly, leading 7-0 after one quarter, and 14-6 midway through the second. But scoring a late first half touchdown with 49 seconds left on the clock gave the Magicians momentum heading into the second half, while also holding a double-digit lead for the first time in the game, 21-6.
Yandel Garcia scored that touchdown from the one, but the extra point had a bit more drama to it. The Mustangs tried to block sophomore Finbar Bresnahan’s kick, but the offending defender was offside on the play. But to make matters worse, he kept coming across the line, before colliding into Bresnahan. He was also called for roughing the kicker, setting off a minor skirmish on the field. Did it fire up the home team even more so to dominate the rest of the game? It just might have.
Captain Colt Wales thought it definitely did. “That definitely fired us up,” Wales said. “Seeing our kicker get hit like that definitely lit a fire under us. We then just kept hitting and hitting. We also loved to see our team get into it after that play to show some fight.”
Crew Monaco, also a captain, had similar sentiments, saying, “I think it lit a fire in us, and we definitely needed that. He then added, “we let the scoreboard do our talking. We think our actions speak louder than words, and that’s what we did. We held them to nothing after that.”
After the officials cleared everything up, Bresnahan ultimately made the boot, as he did with the other five Marblehead touchdowns in this game to have the last laugh.
Head Coach Jim Rudloff said he has no way of knowing if it was intentional, but he loved his team’s reaction to it. “They were protecting their teammate, but I do think it fired them up. But at the same time, you have to be careful that there’s no retaliation, and that you continue to play with class.”
While roughing up their kicker had a positive effect, Monaco doesn’t believe the weather had much to do about anything. “The game plan was the same throughout,” he said. “We run the ball a lot, and so the wind didn’t really affect us. I think we played well, despite those conditions.”
On the windy conditions, Rudloff said that they have had some experience dealing with the elements this year, and so they were familiar with “making adjustments” if necessary to compensate for it, which they did so quite well in the second half with three unanswered touchdowns.
Wales also mentioned the windy conditions. “It was definitely a lot better throwing with the wind, but it wasn’t terrible,” he said.
Garcia scored the first touchdown of the game on the opening drive. It took the Magicians 3:11 to negotiate their way downfield, before the senior running back scooted the final 24 yards to the endzone.
Junior Breydan Callahan and senior Cam Quigley stopped the first two Norwood drives. Callahan recovered a fumble, while Quigley picked off his first of two errant Norwood passes in the game, which led to another short score, this time from Garcia’s senior classmate Brady Selvais, from the one, just seconds into the second quarter.
But on a rare moment for the Marblehead defense in the last seven weeks, they actually gave up a long gainer, and Norwood’s Jack Dwyer took advantage of the lapse to scamper 85 yards down the far sidelines to get his teammates finally on the scoreboard.
Marblehead’s lead shrunk to just eight, but a determined offense coupled with an inspired defense took control of the game to outscore the Mustangs 28-0 the rest of the way.
Rylan Golden’s third quarter interception setup the offense’s fourth score of the game, a 10-yard scoring strike from Wales to Selvais.
On Norwood’s next drive, they fumbled it away, and Julius Galante was right there to pick it up on the Mustangs’ 16-yard line, where Wales took it himself to the endzone.
The third quarter came to an end, with the Magicians leading, 35-6. Marblehead then had the ball on the Norwood 19 after Sam Thompson made a diving catch from Gallup, who then took it himself for six points on a perfectly executed quarterback draw, just five seconds into the final period.
With Marblehead now comfortably in front, the clock kept on running throughout the rest of the game, and when time ran out, the Marblehead boys, now authors of seven straight wins, were moving on to the Elite 8 in Division 4, again against host Grafton Friday night (Nov. 15), starting at 6 p.m.
Rudloff thought his captains really stepped up to lead the way to victory. “They (captains) had a great game on offense,” he said. “Across the board, our receivers, backs and quarterbacks played well, and especially our offensive line. I think defensively we had a thorough team effort. Our guys matched their physicality, and they really tackled well.”
Wales had these thoughts on the Elite 8 game. “We’re just going to keep playing our game like we have done for the past seven weeks,” he said. “There’s really no need to change anything. We just have to keep moving the ball, and complement that with good defense.”
Monaco offered these thoughts on the state quarterfinal contest in Grafton. “Grafton is a great team, and I know we are all excited about the game. I mean, when we lost to them (17-6) last year, we definitely owe them this time around. It’s going to be a great game.”
Rudloff simply said that “Grafton has had an entire season of dominance.” But he also added, “we have been fortunate enough to hold opponents to under seven points in the last seven games, but Grafton has done it since Game 1. They are holding opponents to around six points, while scoring over 30. They run a multiple offense, heavy on the run, but they also have a good passing game. They are very physical, and are very athletic at every position.”
Last year, Grafton had a 6-2 regular season record, while Marblehead was only 3-4. Both teams have considerably better records to date, which should make for an even better rematch on Friday night.
