There are few complaints throughout the first two weeks of the season for the Marblehead High boys soccer team. The Magicians played four games, and won them all, all by shutouts. You can’t get much better than that.
Coach Elmer Magana’s team opened up last week against rival Swampscott on the road at Swampscott’s Blocksidge Field on Sept. 8, and by game’s end the Big Blue fans had little to cheer about, because the visitors walked away with a tidy 3-0 win.
Miles Fontela-Tuttle netted the first goal of the game from Ilan Druker. Druker came back to put one home himself assisted by Jared Halpern. Then, Erik Badzak’s 35-yard rocket shot sealed up this win very nicely.
Magana summed up his team’s third straight shutout win succinctly. “Swampscott parked the bus (defensive wall), and as a result it only produced two counterattacks in the game,” the veteran Marblehead coach said of the home team’s strategy to slow down their rivals.
“Our CDM (center defensive midfielder) Erik Badzak was able to move the ball from left to right to find the holes in that Swampscott wall,” added Magana. “We kept on pressing to punch three goals in to win for the first time there since 2019.”
Goalie Matias Watts-Cruz made two critical saves to record his second shutout on the young season.
The Marblehead boys returned home to take on Peabody two days later at Piper, and the Tanners quickly found out that it’s difficult to score on this team this year. It was another 3-0 win for the Magicians.
Mark Vinokur notched the first goal in this game assisted by Druker. David Magen followed with a score of his own set up by Halpern. The home team then got a little help from Peabody to produce the final tally, and that one went into the books as an own goal, a soccer term meaning that the ball went off the opposing team and into the net.
“From the start, we pressed Peabody to produce turnovers,” said Magana. “Captain Jared Halpern, our center midfielder, battled for every contested ball, and as a result our passing was effective and the outside attack was on fire, specifically captain Ilan Druker, who assisted on the first goal with a cross that resulted in Mark’s header.
“We were determined to go up first, and we did,” added the veteran Marblehead coach, “because we knew that Peabody had size and skillful players. In the second half, Peabody made an effort to come back in this game, but it was in vain.”
Vinokur, a center midfielder, was dominating, according to Magana. “Our defenders — T.J. Kelly, Adam Loughlin, Bubacarr Jallow and Ethan Clock — stopped every Peabody attack, while (Watts-Cruz) came up with a key (second half) save that helped produce shutout No. 3,” said Magana.
