Magicians pull a big rabbit out of their hats

MARBLEHEAD ? Don’t ever leave a Marblehead High football game in the final minute. You’ll miss all the excitement.Brian Daly scored on a 46-yard hook-and-lateral on the final play of the game to give the Magicians an improbable, impossible 28-25 win over Danvers, after the Falcons had taken the lead with 38.9 seconds to go, Friday, at Piper Field.If last week’s 35-34 loss in the final minute to Salem was a devastating blow to the Magicians’ (8-1; 2-1 CAL/NEC Tier 2) post-season hopes, last night’s win was their resurrection. The win sets up a showdown with Beverly on Saturday at Hurd Stadium.”I don’t know what to say. I’m still taking it all in,” said Daly, who was mobbed in the end zone after the winning score. “This just feels so much better than last week. We never gave up.”Trailing by three, Danvers (4-5; 1-2) was backed up at its own 18 with 1:29 left, but quarterback Nick Andreas, who had completed only two passes to that point, connected on four of five throws, the last of which was a 60-yard bomb to Jake Cawlina with 38.9 seconds left to give the Falcons a 25-22 lead.Marblehead’s Ian Maag completed four short passes to move the ball to Danvers’ 46 for a final desperation play. Maag hit Dylan Cressy at about the 35, and Cressy flipped the ball to Daly in full stride. Daly wound his way through about four Danvers players and made it into the end zone.”I’ve never been part of a game like this,” said a classy Sean Rogers, Danvers coach. “It’s high school football. They executed. Give Marblehead all the credit in the world.”The first half went back and forth, with the teams trading three touchdowns apiece. Alex Valles took the opening kickoff back 85 yards and added rushing touchdowns of three and 28 yards, while Zac Cuzner scored on runs of nine and 39 yards for Marblehead.Brooks Tyrrell added an 11-yard run with 1:35 left in the first half to give the Magicians a 22-19 lead, and the score stayed that way until the final dramatic minute.Marblehead had two glittering chances to score in the second half. Danvers held at its 1-yard line after the Magicians had a first-and-goal at the 4 in the third quarter. The Falcons turned the ball over on downs at their 14-yard line with 2:45 left in the game, but a holding penalty wiped out a touchdown run by Cuzner and Cawlina picked off Maag at the 18 to set up the weird, wacky finale minute of the game.”I’m happy that our seniors were able to get a win in their final home game,” Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff said. “But I’m glad we’re going on the road because I’d just as soon not see this field again. Strange things seem to happen to us here.”