Marblehead’s miracle stuns Saugus

SAUGUS – There is no other word in the dictionary than “miraculous” to try to describe Marblehead’s 23-16 win over Saugus at Stackpole Field on Saturday in the Northeastern Conference/South opener for both teams.Marblehead23Saugus16 For three and a half quarters on Saturday, the Magicians had absolutely no answer for Saugus and its punishing fullback, Shamir Guillaume, who torched Marblehead for 189 yards and two touchdowns for a 16-0 lead with 5:06 left.What took place over the next 100 seconds on the clock can only be likened to something of a Houdini act of epic proportions as the Magicians scored three touchdowns in that stretch to stunningly steal away a game that was all but lost.”We talked all week about playing four quarters of football?and we didn’t,” Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff said. “And that’s a credit to Saugus. Guillaume was running over our guys all day. But fortunately we hung in. The kids needed a confidence boost and I’m so proud of them.”Across the field, the Sachems (4-2, 0-1) were left to try to figure out how a game they had so thoroughly controlled for 38 minutes somehow slipped through their fingers.”We couldn’t have asked for a better game from our guys,” Saugus coach Mike Broderick said. “We had the ball at the end with a chance to run out the clock and we made some mistakes. And you can’t do that against a good team.”Both defenses had basically controlled the game for the first three quarters, save for a 57-second stretch late in the third when Saugus turned a 3-0 lead into a 16-0 lead thanks to a Dave Witham score; a fumble; and a Guillaume 24-yard dash moments later.Quigley (27-145) had been held to 67 yards on 14 carries by Saugus in the opening three periods but as the fourth quarter began, he lit a fire under his team with a 25-yard run on third and seven at the Marblehead 43.The Magicians (3-4, 1-0) continued to feed the ball to their workhorse but also were doing a number on the clock at the same time. Quigley finally pounded in from a yard out with 5:06 left before Josh Freedland caught Dan Colbert’s conversion pass to make it 16-8.”Will really needed to have a big game for us and he did that,” Rudloff said. “But we also had a lot of kids who stepped up in the second half of this game when we needed it.”The Sachems got the ball at their 20 following a touchback on the kick looking to burn some clock and force Marblehead to call its timeouts. It was the Magicians, however, who burned Saugus as Witham was stripped and Nick Broughton recovered at the Sachem 22.Quigley immediately toted the rock inside the 10 before scoring two plays later to make it 16-14. He got the call on the 2-point conversion and bulled over the right side to deadlock things with 3:04 to go.”It was like our body language changed right after the fumble,” Broderick said. “Marblehead had to make a play and they were able to score right off it.”Oliver Kim’s kickoff pinned Saugus at its 10 with 3:00 to go and two timeouts remaining. Witham kept on an option play but had the ball knocked away from behind at the 17. Quigley scooped up the ball on a full run and dashed 22 yards down the left sideline to give Marblehead its first lead of the day at 23-16 with 2:38 left.The Sachems reached their 43 on the next possession but three incompletions turned the ball over on downs and effectively put the game away as Marblehead ran the clock down to five seconds before a Saugus last-ditch pass was incomplete.”We had a shot to win and didn’t get it done,” Broderick said. “Now we will see what these guys are made of. Do they hang their heads or come back ready to practice on Monday? Maybe a little bit of adversity will pay off for us.”