Pallazola, Gloucester slip past Swampscott in double-OT thriller

SWAMPSCOTT – The Gloucester football team picked up a huge road victory against Swampscott on Saturday afternoon, prevailing 32-30 in a double-overtime thriller at Blocksidge Field.Both teams kicked field goals on their first OT possessions before Jordan Pallazola scored from the 10 on the opening play of the Fishermen?s second series. Pallazola, who proved the difference in the contest, also converted the two-point conversion.The Big Blue responded with a Brendan McDonald score on a fourth and two keeper. Forced to try a conversion, Desmond Wilhelmsen was stuffed just short of the goal line.?That was one heck of a game,” said Gloucester coach Tony Zerilli. “Coach [Stephen] Dembowski does a great job with that Swampscott team and they forced us to play tough football on both sides of the ball.”The Big Blue defense was the story of the opening half, holding the Fishermen scoreless after 22 minutes. The only score of the half came at the 5:23 mark of the first quarter, a four-yard pass from McDonald to Joey Faia.?I thought our defense was terrific all day, especially in that first half,” said Dembowski. “Gloucester is a good team. It?s unfortunate we came away with a loss but credit them for hanging tough.”Two Pallazola scores sandwiched a Swampscott touchdown in the third period, the first a 14-yard scamper at 7:11. After a Wilhelmsen 10-yard run restored the Big Blue lead, Pallazola scored from three yards out to tie the score with 14 seconds to play in the quarter.Swampscott took the lead back after recovering a John Curcuru fumble before a three-play series resulted in a nine-yard touchdown run by Wilhelmsen. The Big Blue forced a punt on Gloucester?s ensuing drive but gave it right back after McDonald fumbled at the Swampscott 43.The turnover set the stage for the tying score, a 16-yard run to the left pylon by John Salvi-Souza. Both teams had two turnovers in the game.?Our offense has been coming out flat for a few games now and it?s something we?re trying to fix,” explained Zerilli. “We made the adjustments we needed to at halftime and came out stronger in the second.”The hosts nearly pulled a rabbit out of the hat with under a minute to play as McDonald connected on passes of 15 and 13 yards to Ryan Cresta and Ben Faulkner, respectively.With 11 seconds remaining, McDonald found Faulkner on the left side. Faulkner raced into field goal range with seconds left. It was ruled, however, that Faulkner was tackled inbounds, and the clock expired before one last snap.?They said the clocks on the field ran out but it showed a second left on the scoreboard,” said Dembowski. “We as a team have had a lot of bad luck but we worked very hard and just couldn?t capitalize in the end.”