Football: Swampscott, Winthrop set for NEC South showdown

There will be plenty of stars on display Saturday (2:30) at Blocksidge Field in Swampscott when the defending Northeastern Conference South and Super Bowl champion Big Blue play host to Winthrop.If watching two awesome offenses is entertaining, this might be the game to be at, as both teams boast a constellation of stars.”This is a game where you would definitely take the over,” Winthrop coach Sean Driscoll jokingly said. “They just keep cranking out the athletes over there and do a nice job of packaging their plays.”The Big Blue come in at 5-1, riding the wave of an almost-perfect offensive performance in a 42-12 win over Bishop Fenwick last Friday.Winthrop, sitting at 3-3 and 1-0 in the South, showed that it is much more than a one-man show in its 35-28 win over Saugus as quarterback Will Milano threw for 158 yards and three touchdowns.Last year, the two teams met on a rainy and cold night at Miller Field, with the Big Blue winning by a touchdown on the way to a Super Bowl title.How good was the Swampscott offense last week? Its first team only played a half, but scored six touchdowns and racked up nearly 400 yards of total offense.”We’re playing our best football at the right time,” Swampscott coach Steve Dembowski said. “And with the schedule we’ve played, that’s what we wanted. The kids are ready for the league to start.”Quarterback Chris Cameron continued having one of the best seasons by a signal-caller on the North Shore in recent memory, throwing for 206 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for a fourth in his half of work.In all, Cameron has thrown 17 touchdown passes and run for six more in Swampscott’s six games.”His stats are unbelievable,” Dembowski said. “He makes the decisions, but the cast of characters that go with him have made a lot of great plays. All our guys are making plays to help the offense stay diversified and explosive, so it makes it easy to call plays.”Driscoll knows that his defense’s job won’t be easy on Saturday.”For us, it’s like going from playing Navy to playing Hawaii,” Driscoll said. “With the spread offense, it’s almost like having to stop a fast break in basketball. They do a lot of different things and you can do a good job of stopping them, and then they come up with the big play.”Winthrop’s offense wasn’t too bad either last Friday, rushing for 177 yards on top of Milano’s 158 through the air.Chris Beranger went over the 100-yard mark again, with 126 in all to go with two touchdowns. Wide receiver Dan Ramos caught four passes for 92 yards and a touchdown.Milano’s maturation is something that Driscoll knows his team needed to take the heat off Beranger.”Will has progressed immensely since last year,” Driscoll said. “And we need him to keep doing that to have balance on offense. We’ve spent a lot of time trying to get that way on offense, and it’s starting to pay off.”The Winthrop offense will deal with a Swampscott defense that has been markedly better since the return of Ilya Levin two weeks ago. Against the Crusaders, that unit held Fenwick to 213 yards of offense. That prowess has Driscoll’s attention.”Their defense is just as good as the offense,” Driscoll said. “They are fast to the ball and will physically challenge us.”The Big Blue’s veteran coach also has been impressed with how his defense has come along in the last three weeks.”That’s a tribute to a lot of guys who are playing well right now,” Dembowski said. “We’ve played well on offense all year, but we really started to play good defense against Salem. Then we held Gloucester to their lowest point total of the year and came out and really asserted ourself against Fenwick.”The Winthrop passing attack is something that Dembowski knows his team has to be aware of.”A lot of their offense comes off the passing game,” Dembowski said. “It’s probably the best one they’ve had there in years, and that’s what’s made their team go this season.”Beverly at SaugusAt Stackpole Field (2:30), the Sachems (4-1, 0-1 NEC South) look to boun