It’ll be a battle of Super Bowl champions Friday night in Gloucester

On a frigid Saturday last December at Gillette Stadium, the Swampscott and Gloucester football teams played in back-to-back games and gave the Northeastern Conference two Eastern Mass Super Bowl champions.Both teams success had fans circling Oct. 10 on their calendars and on Friday night (7) at Gloucester’s Newell Stadium, the two teams will lock horns in one of the most eagerly anticipated regular season games on the North Shore in a long time.Last year, the Fishermen dealt Swampscott its only loss of the season in a 21-14 win at Blocksidge Field.”It’s been a good rivalry,” Gloucester coach Paul Ingram said.Swampscott coach Steve Dembowski is excited about the chance to play in one of the best atmospheres for football on the North Shore.”You look forward to playing in games like this,” Dembowski said. “And its a great opportunity to play against one of the most consistent programs on the North Shore.”Both teams come in off spectacular offensive performances.The Fishermen (4-0) nearly broke the scoreboard, scoring 48 first half points in breezing to a 67-6 win over Barnstable last Saturday.”We were hitting on all cylinders last week,” Ingram said.Nine different players found the end zone last week for Ingram’s team, which has scored no less than 20 points in all four of its wins.One of the main reasons for that success is the maturation of quarterback Rick Gallant and the addition of fullback Connor Ressel.Gallant has given the Fishermen a bonafied passing attack, which included a 23-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Maki last week.”Ricky has finally learned the skill of passing,” Ingram said. “Everything last year was either too deep or too hard. We’ve kind of broken him out of that now.”Ressel, better known for his prowess on the Fishermen hockey team, has given Gloucester a third cog in its Wing-T offense along with Ross Carlson and Luis Hernandez.Ressel had two touchdowns last week and has scored at least once in all four games.”He’s been our biggest surprise,” Ingram said of Ressel. “He didn’t play last year and I really don’t remember him as a freshman. But he’s pickedSwampscott (3-1) got another outstanding effort from Chris Cameron, who threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 79 in a 47-26 win over Salem last Friday.”Chris has been phenomenal,” Dembowski said.Cameron has gone over 300 yards in total offense in three of Swampscott’s four games.That ability has the attention of Ingram”He really has improved a lot since we saw him in the summer,” Ingram said. “He seems like a tough kid and they’ve been able to move the ball in big chunks.”With all the offensive firepower on both sides of the field, the defenses will be relied upon heavily to come up with stops.The Swampscott defense has shown steady improvement in its four efforts and held a potent Salem team to six second half points in its win last week.”OUr defense really has made improvements, especially last week,” Dembowski said. “Obviously they will be put to the test Friday and our offense will be challenged by the best defense we’ve seen all year.”Across the way, the Fishermen have gone up against arguably the NEC’s best running back in Winthrop’s CHris Beranger and Masconomet’s two-headed monster of Chris Splinter and Evan Bunker. Yet Gloucester held both the Vikings and Chieftains to 14 points and then shut out Beverly and limited Barnstable to six points last week.One thing that helps the Fishermen defense is that Swampscott will be third opponent in a row that runs the spread offense.”In some ways its good for us,” Ingram said. “Because that’s all we’ve worked on since we played WInthrop. We have a way of defending it and it’s worked for us.”The Gloucester defense is something that Dembowski realizes will pose a challenge because of its high pressure package.”Our receivers are going to have to make plays against man coverage and the blitz,” Dembowski said. “It’s really a good chance to see how good we are.”Classical at DanversAt Dr. Deering Stadium