MARBLEHEAD — The 2019 season started the way Marblehead hoped it would.
Despite a number of changes from last season, the Magicians didn’t miss a beat through their first five games. After a 25-20 win over North Andover, Marblehead’s defense logged consecutive shutouts over Gloucester (49-0) and Saugus (43-0).
Beverly gave Marblehead all it could handle in Week 4, but the Magicians survived for a 21-13 win. They escaped Peabody a week later, 16-7, to improve to 5-0 on the year.
Then things took a turn for the worse. A string of crucial injuries hampered the Magicians in a 31-27 loss to Revere in a battle of unbeatens. Danvers handed the Magicians their second consecutive loss, 31-28, a week later.
At 5-2, the Magicians qualified for the Division 4 North state tournament as the No. 5 seed. They traveled to No. 4 North Reading in the quarterfinal and took care of business in a 27-7 win. But No. 1 Melrose, the eventual sectional champion, cut Marblehead’s playoff run short with a 26-14 win in the semifinal round.
Marblehead was handed its second consecutive loss by Wayland in a 28-14 non-tournament defeat. Joshua Robertson hit Brady Lavender and Tim Cronin for touchdown passes of 22 and 12 yards, respectively, giving Marblehead a 14-0 lead. Wayland put it away with 28 unanswered points.
“We thought we had a good game plan going in and the kids played hard in the first half, executing what we saw from them on film,” Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff said. “We committed a lot of penalties and really just couldn’t do anything right in the second half on both sides of the ball.”
The Magicians (6-4) would like nothing more than to continue their recent success over Turkey Day rival Swampscott. Marblehead hosts the Big Blue Thursday (10) at Piper Field.
