The Magicians (2-4, 1-1) fell to the red hot Peabody Tanners (6-1, 2-1), 35-14, at Piper Field on Friday night.
“We’re just inventing new ways to beat ourselves,” said Marblehead head coach Jim Rudloff. “We just have to clean up a lot of our own mess and just continue to try to get better.
Peabody’s Dominik Mercier opened the scoring with an 80-yard rushing touchdown on the game’s third play.
Marblehead appeared to have been putting together a strong first drive of their own before a fumble at the end of a run saw the Tanners take over at their own 40-yard line
Mercier found the end zone again on the ensuing drive, bouncing off multiple defenders to score from 34 yards out.
The Magicians defense came up big early in the second quarter when Vidal Clark picked up a tackle for loss to make it 4th-and-5 and forced Peabody into a 32-yard field goal try that sailed wide right. Momentum rapidly shifted back in the direction of the Tanners, however, with an unlucky interception thrown by Sawyer Adams setting up the visitors just a yard shy of midfield.
Peabody scored another rushing touchdown and converted a 26-yard field goal try to push the score to 24-0 as the first half came to a close.
Marblehead executed a clinical opening drive of the first half, marching 67 yards in 4:50 highlighted by a pair of strong runs from James Machado to push Marblehead down to the 5-yard line and capped by Adams’ sixth rushing touchdown of the season.
After another Peabody touchdown, Marblehead drove their way down the field in short order, completing another solid drive with a 9-yard rush to the pylon by Machado setting up Adams to punch in a two point conversion to make the score 31-15 with 6:09 to play.
Mercier would get his hattrick touchdown on an 11-yard rush with just over two minutes to play to give Peabody a 38-15 lead that would hold to the final whistle.
Marblehead now enters a must-win meeting with Masconomet Regional High School, against whom they played an instant classic last season, on Oct. 30. Kickoff at Piper Field is scheduled for 7 p.m.
