Swampscott seeks to keep title streak alive

If you walk down Lynn Shore Drive into Swampscott, you’ll see a sign recognizing the town as an Olmsted planned community.As the town goes, so does its high school football team, whose situation heading into its Turkey Day clash with Marblehead at Piper Field (10 a.m.) seems to reflect good preseason planning.”If someone had told me in August that we’d be playing for a conference championship and (a chance to go) right back to the playoffs in the Thanksgiving game, I’d take it,” Swampscott coach Steve Dembowski said. “We had four returning starters on offense, two on defense. A lot of those guys stepped up and put us in this position. As a coach, I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.”Two in particular mentioned by the coach are quarterback Matt Barbuzzi and teammate Kyle Shonio, both of whom are “giving us a balance of running and passing,” Dembowski said. “That’s why we’re in this position. It’s the things we’re able to do. They’re obviously two of the best prepared.”The Big Blue face a challenge in Barbuzzi’s counterpart, Magicians signal-caller Hayes Richardson.”Richardson can make plays with his legs and arm,” Dembowski said. “He’s a very explosive player. He is so good at doing both. He’s opened up their running game and made plays in their passing game. They’re a good team with strong balance. They’re good everywhere.”You could say that about Swampscott, too, which enters Thanksgiving Day with a 7-3 record. The Big Blue lost their opener to Gloucester, 27-0, before coming up with a gut-check 33-21 win over Winchester.”There were questions about how we’d be offensively,” Dembowski said. “We were able to beat them soundly. They’ve gone on to have a great season (Winchester is 8-2). I think it gave our guys confidence.”Indeed, it sparked a four-game winning streak, halted by a 37-35 loss to English at Manning Field. Two games later, it looked like Winthrop might hang another ‘L’ onto the Big Blue’s schedule. The Vikings led 21-7 in the second quarter at Miller Field. Yet Swampscott rallied for a 55-27 final.”That was obviously a key game for us as well,” Dembowski said.The Big Blue lost their most recent game to Beverly, 27-21.”We suffered three losses this year,” Dembowski said. “All are very good football teams with good records. The kids have been resilient. They understand what our goals are. They’ve responded by getting better.”The state of the Swampscott-Marblehead rivalry has arguably gotten better, too.”Last year, the winner of the game won the conference and went to the playoffs as well,” said Dembowski, whose Big Blue prevailed in 2008. However, he added, the last time both teams came into the game with such outstanding talent was the late 1980s, from 1986-89.”I think it just brings more out of the communities,” the coach said. “I think there’ll be a large crowd. High school sports are at a difficult time with user fees and budget concerns ? When our two schools do well, people want to help you more. We get more support when we win.”