PEABODY — The Marblehead Magicians might have defeated Peabody 35-14, but head coach Jim Rudloff was not happy with his team’s performance.
“We didn’t have a great week of practice and to be honest with you we made a lot of dumb mistakes,” he said after the game. “I did a poor job on the sidelines. For us, it was kind of a mess on the sidelines. We did a couple of good things that obviously worked pretty well but it was just pretty sloppy for where we want to be in the season right now.”
The Tanners couldn’t have had a worse start on offense as they went three and out and the Magicians didn’t waste time taking advantage, capping a just over two-minute drive with senior quarterback Joshua Robertson connecting with senior James Doody for a 43-yard touchdown pass to give Marblehead a 7-0 lead with 8:23 left in the first quarter.
The mistakes continued for the Tanners as a fumbled snap on the third play of the following drive with just under seven minutes left turned into a Robertson QB sneak from four yards out just over a minute later to make it 14-0. Peabody’s offense continued to struggle and went three and out; Robertson threw another dime, this time for 25 yards to Zander Danforth in the endzone to increase their lead to 21-0 with two minutes left in the first quarter.
Peabody’s poor play followed it into the second quarter as Marblehead started with the ball into the red zone; with 9:28 left in the first half, Marblehead once again found the end zone, this time courtesy of a three-yard rush from George Percy with 9:28 left in the half.
Head coach Mark Bettencourt said that his team made too many mistakes on Friday night.
“We have too many turnovers,” he said. “The last few games we have been putting the ball on the rug. We are trying to sustain drives and we are shooting ourselves in the foot by giving them the ball back.”
The Tanners found some success handing the ball off to sophomore Alexander Silva, who was able to gain some yards on the ground; but he would eventually fumble with 4:31 left in the second quarter, which seemed to doom Peabody to give up yet another touchdown. However, the Tanner defense came up with their first stop and had 1:37 to drive 70 yards down the field.
And that’s exactly what they did with the drive culminating with Peabody quarterback Shea Lynch throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to junior Jovante Dailey as the clock hit zero to make it a 27-7 game entering the half.
Marblehead drove down the field, getting all the way to Peabody’s 30-yard line, but Robertson was picked off, with Dailey making a great snag to save the Tanners from giving up another touchdown.
Peabody started with the ball on its own 42-yard line with 9:51 left in the third quarter and it once again found success as Lynch would end up throwing a 47-yard touchdown pass to Eli Batista to make it a 27-14 game with 8:30 left in the third quarter.
The Tanners defense once again answered the bell, forcing Marblehead to put on the ensuing drive, but their momentum would come crashing down when they fumbled the ball on a reverse with four minutes left in the third. Percy then got his second rush of the day as Marblehead coasted to a 35-14 victory.
Peabody is now 1-4 this season as they prepare to face Swampscott Friday.
Marblehead has yet to lose a game this season and will look to extend their record to 5-0 when they head to Masconomet Friday.
