MARBLEHEAD — Friday night’s opening round game in the Division 4 North football tournament proved that seeding doesn’t mean all that much when it’s time to hit the field in the postseason. Top-ranked and undefeated Marblehead learned the hard way, as the No. 1 Magicians fell to No. 8 Dracut 28-14 at Piper Field.
“There were just so many things we did wrong in the first half, I don’t think we were going to dig our way out of that hole we put ourselves in,” said Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff. “I’m proud of the guys that we made a run to make it a game in the second half, but we should’ve been able to win this game tonight.”
The Magicians got a solid performance out of quarterback Chris Gally, who completed 13-of-25 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown. His biggest target in the passing game was receiver Mason Poisson, who had five receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. Running back Tim Cronin was bottled up for most of the night, only mustering 47 yards, but he was able to squeeze in a touchdown as well.
The main foil for Marblehead proved to be Dracut quarterback Devin Lambert, who threw for three touchdowns and ran for another. Running backs Jakob Rivers, Cameron McCullough and Lucas Ibarguen also played well in the win.
The game started off as poorly as possible for Marblehead. The Magicians gave up a long kick return to start, then the Middies started to move the ball methodically. Marblehead did pin Dracut back with a third-and-20, but then Lambert found McCullough for a 40-yard touchdown to go up 8-0. After forcing a three-and-out, Dracut got the ball back and quickly scored again. This time it was Joseph Petka who was on the receiving end of a Lambert touchdown, this one from 30 yards out, and Dracut went up 15-0. Another three-and-out for Marblehead gave the Middies the ball right back and they scored again, as Lambert connected with McCullough on an 18-yard touchdown. The next Marblehead drive didn’t even make it to a three-and-out, as Dracut forced and recovered a fumble on the second play of the drive. Seven plays later, Lambert punched in a 1-yard touchdown run. Just halfway through the second quarter, the Magicians found themselves down 28-0.
The Magicians scored once at the end of the first half on a 1-yard touchdown run by Cronin, then Marblehead started the second half with a score when Gally found Poisson for a 60-yard touchdown to make it 28-14. But Dracut was able to hold on from there, running out the clock on offense and playing solid enough defense to keep the Magicians off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
After suffering its first loss of the season and getting knocked out of the playoffs, Rudloff knows Marblehead (7-1) can go one of two ways the rest of the year.
“We have two ways we can go now, we can be a 9-1 team or a 7-3 team,” Rudloff said. “The pressure certainly isn’t off, there is pressure for us to keep winning. Hopefully we can learn things from this loss and apply them for the rest of the season.”
