SAUGUS — It was a night full of celebrations for the Saugus football team, but in the end the Sachems couldn’t sustain any momentum on the field in a 22-0 loss to Winthrop in a Northeastern Conference bout at the newly-christened Christie Serino Jr. Memorial Stadium Friday night.
“When you move down the field and don’t score, and then give up a big pass play right at the beginning of the game, it’s tough to come back from that,” said Saugus coach Steve Cummings. “I’m proud of the way our guys fought and I thought we played some good defense for the most part, but we just couldn’t get any breaks to go our way.”
Prior to the game, the Sachems honored their group of 10 seniors — Sean O’Rourke, Ryan Mabee, Kyle Hogan, Drew Gardiner, Mark MacEachern, Chris Porcaro, Mekhi Coburn, Tre Sanders, Alejandro Ortiz and Jake Camuso — for their contributions to the program over the years.
“My postgame speech to the guys was just thanking the seniors for all they’ve done for us,” said Cummings. This wasn’t the year we wanted to have for them, but there’s no question that any success we have in the future will be because of how they handled this season and how they helped the young guys on the team.”
Winthrop quarterback Robert Noonan threw one touchdown pass and ran for another in the win, while running back Welvis Acosta also had a rushing touchdown. Receiver Mikey Chaves added a long touchdown reception for the Vikings.
Saugus was led by O’Rourke, who completed 7-of-14 passes for 71 yards in the loss.
“Getting that early score was obviously a big boost, and I really liked how we played on defense out there,” said Winthrop coach Jonathan Cadigan. “Saugus did a great job defending us and keeping us from getting too far away, but we grinded the whole night and were able to pick up the win.”
Saugus opened up the game with some great ball movement, taking the opening kickoff and moving down the field on an 11-play drive. But a couple of negative plays left the Sachems without any points, and Winthrop quickly turned the tide.
The Vikings came out with three power runs to open the drive, and Saugus packed things in on defense to counter. But Winthrop answered back with a deep play-action pass, and Noonan connected with Chaves on a 62-yard bomb that put the Vikings on the scoreboard. After the two-point conversion, Winthrop led 8-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The offenses for both teams stalled out a bit for the rest of the first half, although Winthrop got one more great scoring opportunity after Chaves picked off a pass and returned it to the Saugus 15. But the Vikings couldn’t punch it in from there and turned the ball over on downs, keeping the score 8-0 Winthrop at the halftime break.
At halftime, Saugus held a short ceremony to officially dedicate the field in honor of its namesake, Christie Serino Jr. His son, Matt Serino, the Winthrop athletic director, was on hand for the ceremony along with the rest of the Serino family.
The two teams traded three-and-outs to start the second half, but Winthrop got some momentum going midway through the third quarter. After Martin busted a big 30-yard run on fourth down to keep the drive alive, Acosta took one around the edge and ran it in from seven yards out to make it a 15-0 Winthrop lead.
The Vikings then forced a Saugus three-and-out to get the ball back, and Winthrop put together an 11-play drive that took nearly seven minutes off the game clock before capping things with a one-yard touchdown run from Noonan to make it 22-0.
The Vikings were able to run out the clock from there, taking home the win to get back to .500 on the season.
Saugus finishes the regular season at 0-8.
Winthrop wraps up the regular season at 4-4 and awaits its seeding in the upcoming Division 5 state tournament. Coming into Friday night, the Vikings slotted in at No. 5 in the Div. 5 power rankings.
“Our goal was to win and get a home game, and I don’t think we’ll be dropping any lower than No. 8 now,” said Cadigan. “We’ve already played some of the top teams in our division and we know we’ll need to be ready. Now is when the fun starts.”
