The recent trend points to the Marblehead football team being the favorite in Thursday’s Thanksgiving game against rival Swampscott. Marblehead has dominated the Turkey Day rivalry as of late and hasn’t lost to the Big Blue since 2012. But anything can happen when two teams take the field, especially in high school sports.
With Swampscott having won the Division 5 North sectional championship and advancing to the state semifinal, the Big Blue have momentum on their side.
Marblehead, on the other hand, is coming off a 31-7 non-playoff win over English in which Magicians junior running back Tim Cronin dominated the Bulldogs and scored four touchdowns. Another key threat on Marblehead’s offense is quarterback Chris Gally, who can run the ball as effectively as he throws it.
The Magicians ran the table in the Northeastern Conference. They won the NEC crown outright and finished their regular season undefeated at 7-0. They earned the No. 1 seed in the Division 4 North state tournament but fell in the quarterfinal round, 28-14, to No. 8 seed Dracut of the tough Merrimack Valley Conference.
Marblehead lost a non-playoff game in Week 9 to Classical, 44-20, at Manning Field. The Magicians bounced back with the big win over English in Week 10.
“Our guys did a good job on defense, even though we made a few mistakes to put it on our defense,” Magicians coach Jim Rudloff said. “The most important thing for us is we bounced back. We played so bad the last two games (Classical, Dracut), especially in the second half (at Classical). We were terrible but we bounced back (against English).”
The Magicians are 8-2 this season. Swampscott’s 9-2.
