‘Sloppy’ Marblehead doubles up on Salem

SALEM – His team may have rolled to a lopsided halftime lead, but not much about Marblehead’s 40-20 decision of Salem at Bertram Field Friday night pleased coach Jim Rudloff.He said a poor week of practice led to predictably sloppy play by the undefeated Magicians, now 3-0.”That was terrible, an embarrassment. We made so many tiny errors that just kept piling up. We took a big step back,” Rudloff said. “We got complacent. We need to practice harder – we’re not getting a great effort. We need to fix that and we need to coach better.”We did do a couple of things well,” he said. “Brooks (Tyrrell) ran hard, (DT) Tommy Gabel had a great game and (quarterback) Spencer (Craig) did some nice things,” Rudloff said.Tyrrell finished with 158 yards and three touchdowns on 25 carries while Craig had 66 yards and two TDs on six carries in addition to completing 8-of-11 passes for 134 yards and a 45-yard scoring strike to Will Millett (5 catches, 113 yards).Aided by a phantom drive-sustaining third-down completion, Marblehead grabbed a 7-0 lead less than three minutes into the game as Tyrrell knifed in from three yards out. Garrett Keough’s first of four PATs made it 7-0 with 8:48 left in the first quarter.Marblehead scored on each of its next three possessions as well. Craig swept in from five yards with 3:20 left in the quarter for a 14-0 lead.After the defense fended off Salem on downs at the Marblehead 39 to start the second quarter, Craig lofted a 45-yard scoring strike to the tight end Millett, running free on a seam route four plays later.Then Bryan Graf’s block and recovery of Riley Grondin’s punt set up Marblehead at the Salem 19 and Tyrrell danced in from 12 yards two plays later to make it 28-0.Salem showed spunk late in the half as running back Javier Robles’s 27-yard reception from Joel Nunez (9-of-21, 103 yards) and 15-yard scamper highlighted a 71-yard drive capped by Rosario Genrri’s one-yard plunge.Marblehead put it away on third-period scores from Craig (15 yards) and Tyrrell (one yard) for a 40-6 lead.Salem countered with Genrri’s six-yard score with 8:36 remaining and Glen Gard’s 44-yard pick-six against the back-up quarterback Keough with 7:25 left. When the Witches gained great field position off a botched punt snap with more than four minutes left, Rudloff was summoned the first defense to quell the threat.”Give Salem credit ? they never stopped and played hard for four quarters, right to the final whistle,” Rudloff said.