SWAMPSCOTT — It wouldn’t have mattered to Lynn English football coach Chris Carroll if the Bulldogs and Swampscott were each 0-4 instead of 4-0 coming into Saturday’s game.
It had meaning to him for more than one reason. Most important, English won, 36-7, and raised its record to 5-0 — just like Classical, Tech, and St. Mary’s, which are now a combined 20-0.
In the process of winning, the Bulldogs handed Swampscott its first loss of the season (4-1), and its first defeat at the newly-redone Blocksidge Field.
And, said Carroll, “next to Classical, this is our biggest rivalry.”
English quarterback Matt Severance echoed that sentiment.
“We were jacked up for this one all week,” he said.
Then there was the matter of the Jeff Blydell cup — a three-year-old trophy established upon Blydell’s death in September 2015.
Blydell’s children played for Swampscott High. But he was a Lynn guy, who lived on Nahant Street and was a coach, and then a mentor, for Carroll while they played baseball for the North Shore Phillies in the North Shore Baseball League.
The score stands 2-1, English, in Blydell Cups. English won the first one, and the Big Blue came back last year to claim it when they defeated the Bulldogs in overtime in Week 1.
“This means a lot to our school,” said Carroll, “and it means a lot to me, personally. Jeff and I were very close. I played for him, and then coached for him, and he was a tremendous mentor and a great friend. He is a legend in both places.”
Though there was a decided buzz coming into the game, and it was standing-room only at Blocksidge Field (portable bleachers on the opposite of the new stands were filled, and there were spectators lined up against the fence next to the fieldhouse), English made things academic early.
Using a running game it hadn’t intended to use (one unsuccessful passing-oriented series persuaded Carroll to change courses), English amassed 250 yards on the ground, blew Swampscott off the ball on both sides, and led, 22-0, by halftime.
With all that rushing, English threw a final curveball six seconds before the half ended when Severance caught the Blue completely by surprise with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Prince Brown.
Rather than taking credit for his decision to eschew the air game for ground and pound, Carroll chalked it up to execution.
“You can have the best game plan in the world,” said Carroll afterward, “but the kids have to execute. That’s what it comes down to. Today, we did.
“I suppose,” Carroll said, “that if I really wanted to nit-pick, I’d find something that we did wrong. You always do something wrong. But I’m very happy about the way we played.”
