The Marblehead Magicians returned to the gridiron Friday night for the first time since the passing of captain Owen Coyne on Oct. 1 for a contest with the St. Mary’s Spartans at Manning Field in Lynn.
The game was surrounded by tributes to Coyne, including the entire team wearing No. 18 on the side of their helmets, captains Tim Wales and Pete Rhodes bringing Coyne’s jersey to the coin toss, and a moment of silence before the national anthem.
Marblehead took the lead late in the first quarter when Wales blocked a St. Mary’s punt, picking it up off the bounce and returning it 10-yards to the end zone for the game’s first points.
St. Mary’s found the goal line themselves midway through the second period on a 19-yard Rowan Merryman rush but failed to convert the extra point allowing Marblehead to retain the lead.
The Magicians rapidly worked their way down the field on the next possession, finding themselves just outside the red zone before the drive seemed to stall out at the Spartan 21-yard line. On a gutsy fourth down conversion attempt, Sawyer Adams fired a strike to Bailey Finkle to put Marblehead up 14-6 with under five minutes to play.
St. Mary’s returned the favor with a seven-yard passing touchdown over the middle from Tegh Sembhi to Christopher Agoha before the ball was punched in for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-apiece heading to the halftime break.
Marblehead’s Trent Brown picked off his second pass of the season on a heavily contested jump ball that put the Magicians in business at their own 25-yard line.
Another punt block midway through the third, this time for the Spartans, set up a 15-yard rushing score for the hosts to go up 22-14.
A late Marblehead fumble came up costly, being returned 52-yards to the house to seal the game for St. Mary’s.
The Magicians fall to 1-3 on the season as their truncated road trip comes to a close. Marblehead returns to Piper Field for the final three games of the regular season starting with a league match-up against the Beverly Panthers (2-3, 0-2 NEC) next Friday at 7 p.m.
