SAUGUS — The last Thanksgiving football game at Stackpole Field was a stalemate for almost the entire day, but in the end Peabody made the big plays down the stretch to earn a 21-7 win over Saugus.
Colby Therrien (115 rushing yards, two touchdowns) hauled in the game-winning score on a 31-yard pass from quarterback Alex DeNisco in the fourth quarter. Calvin Scribner added an exclamation point to the victory with a 20-yard touchdown run in the final seconds.
But the Tanners defense came through drive after drive. Joe Casey led the way while sophomore Mike Perez filled in for injured linebacker Kyle Maglione.
“Joe had to step it up,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “His right-hand man (Maglione) wasn’t there. He hit hard, made his reads, and trusted what the coaches were telling him all week. He made some big tackles for us.
“I think Mike Perez did a great job filling in for (Maglione). For a sophomore to come in and do the things that he did with a huge gaping hole that was Kyle Maglione not in that game was fantastic.”
Saugus gave it everything it had but came up just short, literally. After driving to the Peabody 15 in the third quarter Christian Correia (47 rushing yards, 73 passing yards, one passing touchdown) came up an inch short on a fourth-and-two before Peabody’s game winning drive.
“It’s a game of inches,” Saugus coach Steve Cummings said. “If we make six more inches on any of those downs we’re still driving. Part of me was thinking of a field goal but with this weather it’s a tough spot to put a kid in. Our guys fought hard we were just a little short.”
Therrien started the game with a 68-yard touchdown scamper, giving the Tanners an ideal 7-0 start (Joseph Swanton PAT).
“That was one of the big things coming into the game that we wanted to get up on them early,” Bettencourt said. “That touchdown was exactly what we wanted to dial up. But Saugus didn’t react the way we thought they would react. They kept fighting and that’s a tribute to their coaches.”
Saugus started to figure things out and wide receiver Javier Martinez stepped up in a big way. A pass to the end zone from Correia was tipped by a Peabody defender but Martinez hauled the pass in for 23-yard touchdown and tacked on the extra-point to tie things at 7-7 before half.
It was a defensive battle the rest of the way, with the Tanners stop on fourth down in the third quarter swinging momentum for the game-winning drive.
Peabody faced a fourth-and-six in Saugus territory but DeNisco hit Therrien over the middle for the game-winning score to give Peabody a 14-7 lead.
After another defensive stop, Peabody looked to run out the clock but Scribner and company pushed a pile of players 20-yards to the end zone to cap the scoring in a 21-7 win.
The Tanners end the season at 4-7 and win their sixth consecutive Thanksgiving game.
It was a tough year for the Sachems (3-8) but an emotional Cummings had nothing but praise for his seniors.
“I wish I had them for another year,” Cummings said. “All of them. That’s my only regret is that I only got those kids for one year. But to come through and do the things they did this year… I’m sure their four years didn’t go the way they wanted but you’d never see it in the way they carried themselves. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
