Was this football … or basketball?

LYNN – Anyone who saw the score of Thursday night’s football game between Swampscott and St. Mary’s could be excused if they misread it and thought the two teams played basketball.The final score was 64-39, and if you come back in January and see some of these basketball games, that is a pretty representative score.There is no truth to the rumor that the two coaches got together beforehand and decided between them not to play any defense … and they didn’t decide it was going to be half-speed drill either.Both St. Mary’s Matt Durgin and Swampscott’s Steve Dembowski do agree, though, that the game took on a life of its own.”We just couldn’t get off the field,” said Dembowski, “especially in the second half. That was very disappointing.”A search of records, with some gaps in there, reveals that the 64 points St. Mary’s scored is a high for them, dating back to at least 1974. And Swampscott, in that time, has not given up that many.In a way, Dembowski says, Swampscott’s reputation as a quick-strike team capable of rallying from deficits worked against the Big Blue.”We’ve come to be known for that,” said Dembowski, “so now, when it happens to someone, they don’t stop. They keep going. I suppose you can say that this is a sign of respect for us.”That was going through Durgin’s mind after Swampscott ran back the opening kick of the second half to turn a 24-10 lead into a squirmer.”After that,” he said, “we continued to go back and forth. “It was a strange game, in my opinion. It was an offensive explosion. He (Dembowski) sure didn’t pack it in. And neither did his kids. They kept coming at us, which is what they’re supposed to be doing. Steve’s an excellent coach and his kids play hard.”And toward that end, Durgin was concerned about his defense.”They know,” he said, referring to his players, “that we need to work on tackling, and that type of stuff.”What made this more remarkable than anything is that Antonio Felix, playing his first game at quarterback for the Big Blue, threw the ball only once … and it was incomplete. This was all done on the ground.”And,” said Dembowski, “they only run three or four plays, basically. They line up and they dare you to stop them, and we couldn’t.”It’s not a fluke, Dembowski says.”I was really impressed with their line,” he said. “They have a lot of size there. And those backs … they run hard, and they run north-south, and they get into the open field.”And when they did,” Dembowski said, “we struggled to catch them. Matt’s staff has been with him a long time, and they seem to have this down to a science. I’d be very surprised if St. Mary’s doesn’t contend for a league title, and they’re going to be awfully tough to handle in Division 5.”There were a lot of question marks for the Spartans coming into the season. They lost their quarterback, Jake Cassidy, and one of their running backs, Jordan Collier, to prep schools. Felix, a sophomore, missed his freshman season with injuries, “and I thought he did pretty well being thrown into action on the varsity,” Durgin said.And the running attack didn’t miss a beat, as Connor Sakowich, taking over for Collier, ran for more than 200 yards.Still, Durgin would like to see the defense tighten up a little. But he admits it’s easier to reinforce these lessons after a win like Thursday’s.”It’s a lot better to win and learn,” he says.