SWAMPSCOTT — It was total domination, the likes of which are seldom seen in the topsy-turvy Swampscott-English football rivalry.
After all, we’re talking about two schools that are within two miles of each other. Lynners have, in the past, jumped the border to become members of the Big Blue, and vice versa. The teams have traded improbable victories, one of which has gone down in the annals of North Shore Football (the 1989 Blocksidge Bomb that ruined English’s undefeated season).
There would be no Blocksidge Bombs Saturday — at least none that would slow English down and cause the Bulldogs to be the ones to spoil the City of Lynn’s historic season.
Matt Severance may have his name all over the stat sheet with two touchdown passes and a TD run, but this 36-7 victory over the Big Blue was designed and executed by the offensive line and backfield.
Coach Chris Carroll trotted out the double wing offense, and the Bulldogs ran it to perfection. Later, after the game, he said that hadn’t been the plan.
Then again, he said, game plans aren’t worth the paper they’re written on unless the players execute.
“It’s up to them,” he said. “You can have the best plan in the world, but unless the players execute it doesn’t matter.”
English certainly executed. Ishmile Bangura and Sky Gaston were the main bruisers out of the backfield with 152 yards on 20 carries and 78 yards on 9 carries respectively. Severance, in the conversation, even as a junior, on the list of the area’s elite quarterbacks only put the ball up six times all day, completing four of them, two for touchdowns. Severance’s talents were needed more on defense. As the team’s strong safety, he came up to the line often to help stuff Big Blue receivers and keep them from turning short passes into long gains.
“All week long we were focused,” said Severance. “We knew Swampscott was a very good team, and that they were very discipline. But we really brought it today.”
On the other hand, Swampscott coach Bobby Serino was as blunt as blunt could be.
“I thought this was the worst we’ve played, in every phase of the game,” he said. “Offense, defense, special teams, we just didn’t do the job.
“We had our chances early,” he said. “We just couldn’t put the ball in the end zone.”
The game didn’t start out like it would be a blowout. English went 3-and-out on its first possession and Swampscott stormed down the field from its own 48 to the Bulldog 16 in eight plays. But when the Big Blue tried a little razzle-dazzle, with a reverse halfback option with Emanuel Teshowa throwing toward the end zone, Prince Brown — another of the many heros for the Dogs on this day, picked it off.
“He read that beautifully,” Carroll said.
English wasted no time grabbing the lead, plowing 80 yards on nine plays, all on the ground, with Bangura running in the final six, and then getting the conversion, to put the Bulldogs up 8-0.
Again, Swampscott moved the ball getting down to the English 15 in eight plays. But the Big Blue stalled as a field goal attempt went wide.
English answered with its second touchdown, a 20-yarder that Juan Avelino practically scooped up off the ground. Devin Curley’s kick made it 15-0.
English may have lulled Swampscott a bit on its next touchdown. Time was running out in the first half, and the expectation was that the Bulldogs would run out the clock, happy with their lead. But instead, Severance reared back and hit Brown on a dead run, and the speedy receiver sprinted to the end zone and it was 22-0, and all over but the shouting.
Severance ran one in from the 1-yard line in the third quarter to make it 29-0 before Swampscott finally got on the board, thanks to a Dylan January 3-yard run, and Bangura ran one in from the 3-yard line for English to finish out the scoring.
