PEABODY — The Peabody football team cooked up a 41-6 Thanksgiving morning win over the Saugus Sachems on Thursday, closing out the season with six straight victories after just barely missing the playoffs.
After having some defensive struggles to start the year, Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt said that the 2021 season was a lot of fun for him and his staff.
“Obviously you have fun when you win and being on a six-game winning streak with this win, it puts the icing on the cake for the work that the kids put in,” Bettencourt said. “When we were 1-4, it would have been easy to give up, but that just did not happen. They believed in the system. They believed in their coaches. They believed in each other.”
It was a milestone occasion for the Tanners, as junior quarterback Shea Lynch eclipsed 30 passing touchdowns on the season. Junior Danny Barrett and sophomore Eli Batista each also broke a school record by recording their 10th touchdown catches of the year.
Lynch finished the day with five passing touchdowns, while Barrett and Batista finished the day with a combined seven catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns. The quarterback was also making smart throws as he completed more than 90 percent of his passes.
“He’s a student of the game,” Bettencourt said of Lynch. “He works at it; it’s not an accident. This isn’t a freak thing. He put the time in. He put the work in.”
After forcing the Sachems to punt after Saugus was only able to get to its opponent’s 40-yard line, Peabody started its ensuing drive at its own 10-yard line with 8:31 left in the first quarter.
The Tanners managed to drive 90 yards down the field in nearly three minutes as the drive concluded with the junior quarterback throwing a 44-yard touchdown to Daviel Canela. Sophomore Domenic Scalese missed his first point-after attempt (PAT) of the season, but Peabody held a 6-0 lead.
Saugus took over on the ensuing drive but didn’t have possession long as the Sachems went three and out and were forced to punt with just under five minutes left in the opening quarter. Sophomore Eli Batista had a stellar 33-yard return that gave Peabody possession on its opponent’s 16-yard line. On the next play, Lynch threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to junior Colin Ridley. This time Scalese hit the PAT and the Tanners went up 13-0.
Things continued to get worse for the Sachems on the ensuing drive as senior Jovante Dailey returned a pick-six 45-yards to the end zone. After another successful PAT from Scalese, the Tanners boasted a 20-0 lead with 2:16 left in the first quarter.
Saugus maintained possession on the ensuing drive up through the end of the first but were forced to punt on the first play of the second quarter. A poor snap from the Sachems resulted in a broken play and the Tanners regained possession at their opponent’s 15-yard line and Lynch threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Barrett. Scalese converted the PAT and Peabody had a 27-0 lead with 11:11 left in the half.
The Sachems offense took over on their following drive at their own 30-yard line and the Tanners defense once again made quick work of them as Saugus went three and out. Peabody took over possession with 9:40 left in the second quarter. The nearly three-minute-long drive concluded with Lynch tossing a touchdown to Dailey, which gave the Tanners a 34-0 lead after a successful PAT.
Peabody started the second half with the ball at its own 47-yard line and the Tanners offense continued to dominate. The 53-yard drive concluded with Lynch throwing his fifth touchdown pass of the game. Batista was on the receiving end of the bullet that gave Peabody a 41-0 lead with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
The Sachems had one of their better offensive drives with four minutes left in the third quarter. Captain Mark MacEachern broke off a 48-yard run. Unfortunately, the Sachems were unable to convert on the quality run as Saugus threw an interception with senior Jordan Thompkins making the snag for the Tanners.
Peabody drove into Sachems’ territory as the game entered the fourth quarter, but a fumbled snap had Saugus take over possession 10 yards from the end zone. Moments later, with eight minutes left in the game, MacEachern burst into the end zone from three yards out. After a failed two-point conversion, the scoreboard read 41-6 and it would stay that way once the clock struck zero.
While it wasn’t the season that the Sachems were hoping for, head coach Steve Cummings thinks that the future is bright for Saugus.
“We had freshmen and sophomores all over the field today,” he said. “A lot of these kids are playing their first Thanksgiving Day game and we got a couple more (years) with those guys. The future is very bright for this program but right now our focus is on our seniors, making sure that we are able to appreciate those guys and everything they did.”
The Tanners finished the 2021 season with a 7-5 record while Saugus concluded its season with an 0-11 record.
