Swampscott football powers past Danvers

SWAMPSCOTT – In the end, it turned out to be just another day at the office for the Swampscott football team and its high-powered offense. But it didn’t start out that way at Blocksidge Field on Saturday.Danvers kept the Big Blue off the field for most of the first quarter but once Swampscott got rolling, the Falcons didn’t have an answer.Led by six touchdowns from quarterback Mike Walsh, Swampscott put up 347 yards of offense over the second and third quarters, outscoring the Falcons, 40-7, en route to a commanding 47-14 win.In all, the Big Blue gained 417 yards on the day while the defense stymied the Falcons and held them to 226 total yards.”We got good contributions from a lot of guys and when you have that, it usually leads to good things,” Swampscott coach Steve Dembowski said. “And 47-14 is a pretty good win.”With the Falcons putting eight men in the box to shut down the Swampscott ground game, the Big Blue (7-1, 2-0 NEC/CAL Tier 2) turned to their screen game to blow the game open.In fact, it was Walsh’s 89-yard bubble screen throw to Richard Sullivan that gave Swampscott a 7-0 lead in the first minute of the second quarter and sent the Big Blue on their way.”It was like an extension of the running game,” Dembowski said of the screen plays. “They were putting so many guys up in the box, so we decided to let our playmakers work in space.”Walsh, who threw for 245 yards and four touchdowns while adding his other two on the ground, made a diving interception on Danvers’ next possession. He then capped the ensuing eight-play drive with a one-yard plunge for a 13-0 lead with 4:52 left in the half.Danvers fought back and climbed back within one score as Nick Valles hauled in a Paul Nicolo pass for a 26-yard touchdown that made it 13-7 with 2:33 left in the half.Swampscott, though, went right back to work and put up a backbreaking touchdown in less than two minutes.Walsh hit Sullivan for gains of eight and 12 yards into Danvers territory. He then drilled Frank Legere in stride down the right hash for a 30-yard gain. A.J. Baker capped the drive on the next play, snaring Walsh’s 13-yard throw for a 19-7 halftime lead.”Those guys work so well together,” Dembowski said. “They’ve played together since they were kids and are all seniors so they’ve been together for a long time.”The Big Blue got the ball to begin the second half and went about turning out the lights on Danvers. Walsh led Swampscott on a seven-play, 66-yard drive in a little under three minutes, closing it with a 10-yard keeper for a 26-7 lead.Danvers turned it over on downs on the ensuing possession and Walsh solved the Falcon secondary again.He hit Sullivan for 15 and 16 yards before floating a perfect fade pattern to Baker for a 33-7 lead, which became 40-7 after a Danvers punt and another TD connection to Baker with :28 ticks left in the third.Aaron Cronin’s five-yard run midway through the fourth increased the margin to 47-7 before Danvers’ Sam Anderson closed the scoring late.