The scrimmage season is now over, and the only thing that remains for the Marblehead Football Magicians are the tune-up practices before Friday night’s (Sept. 5) regular season opener against non-league host Lynn English at Lynn’s Manning Field, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Coach Jim Rudloff’s squad scrimmaged St. John’s Prep, West Springfield and Billerica, and by all accounts progress has been made for a program that once again expects to make the Division 3 playoffs.
“It’s not so much that I’m either impressed or disappointed with the offense or defense, but that we are right where we should be at this point of the season,” said Rudloff after the Aug. 29 scrimmage at Billerica. “This scrimmage against Billerica went well, specifically because we came away injury-free. Both our offense and defense played well, but we have to continue to improve, especially among the younger players. We need to get better in all facets of the game, as we now get into the real games starting this week.”
But Rudloff thinks that everything should be ironed out before the Lynn English opener. “By this week, we should be properly aligned, and everybody should know their specific assignments,” he said. “The practices will now focus on just getting ready for the team that we are about to play.”
Senior quarterback Finn Gallup agrees with his coach that the team did play well against Billerica. “We put up some good numbers on offense, and got a ton of stops on defense,” Gallup said. “The scrimmage against West Springfield was a tough fight for us, and we fought very hard against the Prep, which was awesome to see.”
If final scores were recorded in scrimmages, Marblehead would have defeated host Billerica, 31-7, according to Gallup. “But we all know that was only a scrimmage, so we don’t look too much into those scores.”
Gallup admits that they are a young team on both sides of the ball, but are “getting better each day,” while adding, “The goal is just to continue to get better in every practice, film session, meeting and lifts. We can’t take any steps backwards from now on. Lynn English looks really tough and athletic, so we will definitely have our hands full in Week One in Lynn.”
As of last weekend, the starting offensive and defensive lineups are still up in the air, according to Rudloff. “We use these scrimmages to evaluate,” he said, “and are still moving players around to see who best fits where.”
