Explosive third quarter leads Beverly over Saugus

SAUGUS? It’s funny how one play can change around the complexion of a game.
On Saturday at Stackpole Field, that play came with nine seconds left in the first half and Beverly trailing Saugus, 13-7.
Panther wideout Justin Marrs caught a screen pass from Mark Hannable and raced 26 yards for a touchdown to give his team a 14-13 halftime lead and open the floodgates to a 21-point third quarter in which the Panthers scored three touchdowns on only five plays to take a 35-13 win and improve to 6-1 for the season.
“That really was a good quarter of football,” Beverly coach Dan Bauer said. “It’s fun to watch the kids play like that. But the big thing was the drive we put together before the half. It gave us the momentum we needed and we carried it over to the second half.”
Across the way, it was the exact opposite for the Sachems, who fell to 4-2 and 0-2 in NEC South play. After wresting the momentum from Beverly with a Bret Reid touchdown with 1:09 to play in the half, the Sachems watched the Panthers steal it back.
“That touchdown at the end of the half really hurt,” Saugus coach Mike Broderick said. “We got a break with a fumble and that changed the momentum and then they went right down the field on us. That was really disheartening.”
Despite seeing the late score at the half, the Sachems were to get the ball to start the second half. But the Panther defense, bolstered by the Marrs touchdown, held on three plays and forced a punt of only 14 yards.
Starting at the Saugus 40, Beverly began its scoring explosion. Rashad Sims (139 yards), held to only 30 first-half yards, took a handoff and raced untouched up the middle for a touchdown and a 20-13 lead.
In need of one of its trademark long drives on offense, Saugus ran squarely into a brick wall as three Mike Dean carries resulted in a loss of a yard and another punt.
“The defense came out and did a nice job in the second half,” Bauer said. “The coaches made some adjustments and it was good to see the kids play well when they had to.”
This time it took Beverly only two plays to score as Hannable gained 18 yards to the Saugus 46 before Sims raced up the right sideline on the next play to make it 28-13 with 5:32 left in the third quarter.
Saugus moved to the Beverly 34 on its next possession thanks to a personal foul penalty. But there the drive stalled as Reid was sacked on third and long and then threw an incompletion on fourth down from the 41.
“Their defense came out and just shut us down,” Broderick said. “They got a little momentum at the half and then we just came out flat.”
Two plays later, the Panthers were back in the end zone. A nine-yard run from Sims got the ball to midfield, where Hannable threw to slot receiver Steve Dubois at the 20. The junior bounced off a John Moore hit and raced into the end zone to make it 35-13 with 14 seconds left in the third quarter.
In the third quarter, Beverly’s three touchdown drives took a combined 1:27 and gained 163 yards, nearly matching the Panthers? output in the entire first half.
“It was a battle in the first half,” Bauer said. “But we came out and played hard in the second half and were better and sharper.”
Beverly took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when Hannable capped an 11-play, 88-yard drive with a 35-yard keeper up the middle with 1:44 left.
The Sachems responded with a 13-play, 61-yard march that stretched until the midpoint of the second quarter. Shamir Guillaume closed the drive with a 16-yard burst up the middle that made it 7-6 (the extra point was wide left).
Saugus forced a Beverly punt on the next possession, getting the ball back at the Panther 31 with 3:21 to go in the half.
Five plays later, Reid plunged in from the three to give Saugus a 13-7 lead with 66 seconds left in the half.
But the Panthers put together another 2-minute drill of perfection as Hannable was 5-of-6 for 66 yards in the final seconds of the half. His 22-yard pass to Dubois got the Panthers close before he hit Marrs on t