BOSTON — Around here, there are few rivalries bigger than Marblehead vs. Swampscott. When schedules get released – no matter the sport – every Magician and Big Blue athlete checks to see when they play the other side.
And in football, this year, the teams met a day earlier at historic Fenway Park.
On paper, they matched up fairly well. Entering the game, Marblehead averaged 27.6 points per game, while allowing just 14.4. Swampscott averaged 26.9 points and allowed 15.1.
But in this one, Marblehead walked out of Fenway Park victorious – and it didn’t need a walk-off to do it. Whether it was through the air, on the ground, or on defense, Marblehead seemed to have every advantage in a 42-6 win.
Marblehead opened the game with a 65-yard scoring drive. The Magicians faced a critical fourth-and-3 inside their own 50 and elected to go for it – a choice that paid off. Fast forward a few plays, and Yandel Garcia ran one in from 5 yards out to make it 7-0. The drive took 8:47 off the clock.
Before you knew it, the score was 14-0 thanks to a Bernardo Bannis score.
Then, after another three-and-out from Swampscott, Marblehead hit a home run with Finn Gallup tossing one to Brady Selvais for a 48-yard score.
“It’s something that I thought about coming in,” Selvais said of his touchdown celebration. “I’m only going to be in Fenway Park once in my entire life playing a football game, so might as well hit a funny baseball side after scoring a touchdown.”
Swampscott, with two minutes remaining in the half and down 21-0, got the ball back thanks to a Jay Domelowicz interception. However, the potential spark that Swampscott needed was halted when defensive tackle Gunther Fehrenbach dropped into coverage and came up with an interception of his own.
“That’s a coach’s dream,” Rudloff said of the lineman’s big play.
From there, Gallup found Crew Monaco for a 48-yard touchdown to make it 28-0 with five seconds left.
Fortunately for the Big Blue, they only needed five seconds to answer back. On the ensuing kickoff, Gabe Tripp picked the ball up from the 30 and bolted past the coverage, sprinting into the endzone to end the half, 28-6, after the PAT was blocked.
The second half was more of the same, with Marblehead winning the margins and making the right plays at the right time.
Swampscott, which just came off a semifinal loss to Fairhaven on Saturday, looked a step slow.
“I thought our kids battled,” said second-year coach Peter Bush. “When you go into games like these and you’re used to having enough time to prepare, it comes down to the little details. When you have time to go over that stuff and review it with the kids and really make points of emphasis, that’s the difference. With the two days, the kids worked as hard as they could to get ready. Obviously, it wasn’t our night.”
Rudloff also shared some sympathy for the short week Swampscott had.
“I’m sure Bushy was feeling it this week, too,” he said. “You can’t lose a playoff game and expect to have a good practice the next day.”
Rudloff, with the end of the Marblehead teachers’ strike, was back on the sideline.
“It’s dumb that we even have to answer that question… it should never have happened,” he said. “The adults got in the way of the kids. Not going to lay out blame to anyone, but we really screwed the kids on that and that’s on all of the adults on all sides. That should never have happened. What we did was, we sent the kids into the biggest playoff game of the year and one of the best opponents we played, and we tied one of their hands behind their back.”
