PEABODY — The Peabody Tanners feasted on the Saugus Sachems, 27-6, on a beautiful Thanksgiving morning at Peabody High.
Peabody finished the year 10-1, which included a perfect regular season. As for Saugus (5-6), it battled adversity and injuries all season, and continued to fight for four quarters Thursday.
But Peabody got out to a hot start. Senior Eli Batista ran back a 51-yard punt return just two minutes into the game.
Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt spoke highly of Batista and his importance to the program.
“We had our team dinner last night and as Eli was giving his senior speech, in my mind, I remembered when we were at Higgins and he came up to me and Doug Santos and said, ‘I’m not going to St. Mary’s. I’m going to play for you guys,’” Bettencourt said. “To think of what we went through from that moment to now, it’s overwhelming. We’re very lucky. He’s an old-school player and one of the most humble kids I’ve ever met.”
The next score came from senior running back Alex Silva, who broke free for a 54-yard run in wildcat formation to double Peabody’s lead (14-0).
All year long, Peabody’s defense flexed its superiority. Today was no different.
With 4:26 remaining in the first quarter, Donnie Cavanaugh came up with an interception and ran it back to the house to give Peabody a 20-0 cushion.
Bettencourt credited Silva and Cavanaugh as being two linchpins in the defense.
“The biggest thing we’ve been trying to get here is stopping the run. To stop the run, you have to stop it from tackle to tackle,” Bettencourt said. “We were very lucky to have some athletes such as Alex Silva and Donnie Cavanaugh, so when teams ran wide, they were able to contain, and when they bounced, they were there to make plays. For this defense, those two guys are going to be very hard to replace.”
Cavanaugh scored another touchdown – this time from 23 yards out – to make it 27-0 at halftime.
Another important cog of this high-powered Peabody team is record-breaking kicker, Dominic Scalese. Scalese finished his high school football career with 165 points, the most in school history.
“It makes your offensive coordinator breathe a little easier knowing that you just need to get the ball inside the 30 and we have a good shot of putting points on the board,” Bettencourt said. “It’s not just his field goals and extra points; he hit over 38 touchbacks, which is insane for high school. The other team has no shot of running it back. The punting he’s done this year to change field position and stop the momentum, I hate to say it, but it’s going to be tough to replace him next year.”
Although down big, Saugus coach Steve Cummings liked how his team ended the half, stopping the Tanners when they were threatening.
“Our guys battled. Obviously, it’s not ideal to give up a punt return (for a touchdown) early, a pick-six early, and start with bad field position,” Cummings said. “But at the end of the half, they blocked a punt and from inside the 5, we stopped them to end the half.”
In the second half, the Sachems battled on both sides of the ball.
“[In the] second half, our defense kept making stops and kept finding ways to keep us competitive,” Cummings said. “I love the fight that our guys have. We had a couple of injuries that put some damper on some things we had planned, but our kids battled and I can’t say enough about the fight our guys had.”
Saugus found the endzone on a 13-yard score from senior Tommy DeSimone in the third quarter.
DeSimone and senior Braden Faiella were all over the field, making tackles and plays on both sides of the ball. Cummings believes they’re going to be great at the next level.
“It’s not the football players they are. It’s the work and offseason stuff – and getting people to commit to the cause. It’s everything that people don’t see from December to August,” Cummings said. “They’re not just great football players; they’re even better leaders. They’re both going to play football somewhere next year and I’ll tell you, those couple schools are going to be really happy they took shots on those two.”
Saugus graduates 14 seniors, and Cummings couldn’t be more proud.
“They mean everything to me,” he said.
For Bettencourt, he was glad to give his group one last win.
“I’m happy for our seniors. They have worked very hard since freshman year. Dealt with the coronavirus and made a point to bring this program back to credibility,” Bettencourt said. “If you look at their record from sophomore year to now – 7-4, 10-1, 10-1 – that has got to be the best three years in a long time that any group has had.”
Cummings hopes the rival tradition never ends.
“When you go to college or meet people who didn’t grow up in this area, and you tell them you played on Thanksgiving, they look at you and say, ‘This is the greatest thing ever,’” Cummings said. “I don’t know anything without it. It’s a strange setup because you play at 10 a.m. and have two weeks to prepare, but once you get halfway through the first quarter, it’s just football. It’s a great tradition that I hope the state never gets rid of.”
