GLOUCESTER — After Marblehead and Gloucester both found the end zone in the first few minutes, it seemed as though Friday night’s game would be a shootout between two undefeated teams.
The Magicians had other plans, however, dominating the rest of the way and rolling to a 37-12 win at Newell Stadium.
“I’m completely surprised,” Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff said. “We didn’t expect this at all. Our biggest fear was the fourth quarter and the conditioning that Gloucester has every single year. The last couple years when we’ve beaten Gloucester by a touchdown or two it’s always been all of the sudden in the second half you’ve got this storm coming at you.
“You dream about getting up by so much that that can’t happen,” Rudloff added. “I never in a million years imagined that this would happen. Our kids just responded tonight.”
While Marblehead came into the game with the same weekly mentality and approach, Rudloff was happy his team came away with a statement win in its biggest game of the season thus far.
“We’re not big on this stuff but the Boston Globe, I don’t think we’re in their top 20 even,” Rudloff said. “We’re the only undefeated team that’s not in their top 20. We didn’t get picked tonight, everyone picked Gloucester and it’s just the assumption that Marblehead kids aren’t tough. That’s what we saw all week and we said ‘let’s find out, let’s do this and find out,’ and I’m very happy with the way the kids responded.”
Magicians quarterback Chris Gally (12-for-17 for 201 passing yards and two touchdowns, and 109 rushing yards with one rushing touchdown) dominated the offense.
“Chris was a complete player today,” Rudloff said. “He looked very calm and even-keeled and that’s the big thing. You want to make sure that your quarterback feels comfortable in the pocket and feels comfortable making the plays and calls he’s making. Chris looked comfortable, that’s the best way I can explain it. I give credit to our offensive line for doing that.”
It didn’t take long for the Magicians to get on the board. Gally connected with receiver Ryan Harris for a 21-yard score after a quick drive to give Marblehead a 7-0 edge.
Just under two minutes later, Gloucester answered with a touchdown of its own. Running back Marc Smith found space on a sweep to the left side of the field and broke an open-field tackle to score on a 73-yard rush and narrow the Marblehead lead to 7-6.
That would be the last spark for the Gloucester offense for a while. Marblehead stopped Gloucester’s next three drives and the Magicians’ offense looked unstoppable. Gally found Sean McCarthy (five catches for 109 yards and one touchdown) who made a great catch for a 22-yard touchdown and running back Tim Cronin (78 rushing yards and two touchdowns) added two scores on the following drives to extend the Marblehead lead to 27-6.
Before halftime, Marblehead added another score, this time on a 37-yard field goal off the leg of kicker Mason Poisson, to go ahead 30-6.
“It’s great,” Rudloff said of the kick. “And you know what else it does, it sets up things for future games, the fact that we can do that. He’s been hitting them in practice all week but now you’ve done it in the game so now you’ve added another tool to your tool belt.”
Marblehead added another touchdown in the second half on a 6-yard run by Gally to put the game far out of reach before eventually kneeling on the final drive to seal a 37-12 victory.
The Magicians (6-0) will travel to Danvers Friday night (7).
“Danvers allows maybe 12 points against us every time we play them,” Rudloff said. “We seem to struggle scoring against them so we have to work really hard this week. It’s a tough game.”
