Big plays lift Beverly football team past Saugus

SAUGUS – When it needed a big play on Saturday, Beverly was able to come up with it ? and took a big step towards a playoff berth in the process.The Panthers were able to stuff Saugus running back Shamir Guillaume, holding the Sachems star to 105 yards on 27 carries, while Brendan Flaherty and Kenny Pierce broke long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to give Beverly a 28-13 win at Stackpole Field.Beverly28Saugus13 Even more importantly for the Panthers, the win gives them and Marblehead control of their own fate in the NEC South thanks to Winthrop’s stunning win over Swampscott.”I am really proud of the guys,” Beverly coach Dan Bauer said. “To stop that kind of offense takes a lot of patience and I was very happy with the way the defense played.”The Sachems (4-3, 1-2 NEC South) were very much in the game on Saturday but had two drives in the second half stopped inside the Beverly 20 and that proved to be the difference.”We had a lot of chances,” Saugus coach Mike Broderick said. “We just didn’t make the best of them. We played hard all game but Beverly is a very good football team.”Beverly (3-5, 3-0) got the ball first and gave the Sachems a dose of their own medicine via a 13-play, 80-yard march that ate almost seven minutes off the first quarter clock. Flaherty and Nick Theriault did most of the work on the ground with Joe Wioncek’s 24-yard pass to Mark Giles setting up a one yard sneak by the Panther QB. Dom Abate’s rush off a botched extra point made it 8-0.Saugus’ first possession of the game brought back bad memories for the Sachem faithful as George Kastrinakis stripped quarterback Dave Witham and the Panthers recovered. Two plays later, Flaherty was in the end zone and Beverly quickly led 15-0.Saugus settled down and turned to its workhorse in Guillaume during a 16-play, 70-yard drive that stretched into the second quarter. The senior fullback piledrived in from the one on fourth-and-goal with 5:53 left in the half to cut the lead to 15-6.The Sachems fully had the momentum on their side at halftime when they stuffed Theriault on a fourth-and-two at the five inside the final 90 seconds of the half.”Saugus did a nice job defensively. They made it hard for us to run a lot of the plays we like to call,” Bauer said.The teams exchanged turnovers in the third quarter before the Panther defense came up with a major stand late after a fumble. Guillaume ripped off a 31-yard run – his longest of the day – before Beverly stood tall and forced a turnover on downs.That hold became even more crucial on the second play of the fourth quarter when Flaherty raced 80 yards up the gut to make it 21-6 with 10:21 left.”Our offensive line was great,” Bauer said.The Sachems weren’t done yet as they put together another long drive but saw a touchdown slip through the arms of a wide-open LeRoy Randolph in the end zone. Three plays after the drop, Guillaume was stopped on a fourth-and-two at the Beverly 20 with 4:10 to go.Pierce’s 54-yard run moments later upped the lead to 28-6 before Saugus got a Randolph TD catch with 1:11 to go for the game’s final points.