SWAMPSCOTT– The Swampscott football team’s defense brought its best effort Friday night in a 21-0 shutout win over Peabody at Blocksidge Field.
Big Blue kicker Thomas Frisoli, back in the lineup after missing last Friday’s 7-6 loss to Danvers, hit three PAT’s. Swampscott started its offense on a touchdown pass from Graham Inzana to Xaviah Bascon, covering 13 yards. Inzana snuck one in from the two on a keeper in the second quarter and Cam O’Brien grabbed an Inzana pass with 7:51 left in the game to ice it for the Big Blue, who improved to 4-2 on the season.
“Thomas was heartbroken that he couldn’t play last week, and he came right out (Friday) and didn’t miss a beat,” Big Blue coach Bobby Serino said. “We got touchdowns in the air, we got touchdowns on the ground and Thomas was there every time to cap it off. One of the things I have to mention is Graham Inzana’s keeper for a score. He’s an athlete, one of the toughest kids in the league to bring down and he showed it on that play. If he doesn’t want to go down, he doesn’t go down.
“I thought our defense played great and that’s a credit to coach (Peter) Bush,” Serino added. “I don’t get mixed up in the defense, I just let my coaches do their thing and the defense turns out fine.”
Swampscott opened the scoring when Inzana tossed a pass to Bascon with 2:19 left in the first quarter, and Frisoli made it 7-0. Those seven points were all the Big Blue offense would need, because the Tanner offense was sputtering a bit, but Inzana scored in the second and O’Brien wrapped up the scoring late in the fourth quarter. O’Brien’s score was set up by an interception by Andrew Augustin. Zack Palmer and Arturo Vasquez also had interceptions in the game for the Big Blue.
Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said his team is getting closer but the Tanners still need to get out of their slump and execute winning plays.
“I was happy with a lot of things, but there were a lot of things I wasn’t happy with,” Bettencourt said. “We’re not getting a lot of breaks, we’re a half a second off with our reads and it’s really hurting us. We’re getting close but we‘ve got to make some plays and get some momentum from there. We’ve got to keep at it, we’re due to click, I really believe that.”
Peabody (2-4) hosts Beverly next Friday (7).
Swampscott travels to Gloucester next Friday (7).
