Danvers’ Kieren Moriarty attempts to run down Marblehead running back Jaason Lopez. Photo by Bob Roche
By Gordon Vincent
DANVERS — Marblehead High football coach Jim Rudloff said last season’s loss to Danvers in the state playoffs ruined his entire summer. The autumn is looking much better now.
The Magicians (3-0) scored 16 points in a span of four minutes in the third quarter to take command and then held on for a 30-23 win over the Falcons Friday night at a refurbished and gorgeous Dr. Deering Stadium.
Drew Gally threw touchdown passes of 62 yards to Manning Sears and 14 yards to Harry Craig, while Jaason Lopez ran for a one-yard touchdown. The biggest play of the game for the Magicians, however, was a blocked punt by freshman Devin Romain, which was returned 24 yards for a touchdown by Sam Frontero to spark Marblehead’s third-quarter spurt.
“To be honest with you, I felt pretty good at halftime when I came into our locker room and saw all our starters huddled together,” Rudloff said. “Usually, the kids look to the coaches for guidance, but that was them saying they knew what they were going to have to do to win.”
Four different players scored for the Falcons (2-1), who never led but never went away, either. The Magicians didn’t seal this one until Lopez intercepted a pass from Dean Borders at the Danvers’ 47-yard line with 29 seconds left in a game that ended in a downpour.
“That’s a good football team over there,” Rudloff said. “We knew they’d keep coming at us.”
Marblehead scored on its first possession of the game, a 57-yard march that was kept alive when Gally passed to Craig for 15 yards on 4th-and-14 to the Falcons’ one-yard line. Lopez went into the end zone on the next play and the Magicians led, 7-0.
The score stayed that way until the teams combined for three touchdowns in the final 2:28 of the second quarter. Matt Andreas found the end zone for Danvers with a 10-yard run, and the Magicians answered on the next play from scrimmage when Sears hauled in a tipped pass at the Danvers’ 40 and raced into the end zone. The Falcons came right back with a quick 81-yard drive that culminated with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Justin Mullaney to Quintin Holland to tie the score at 14 at halftime.
Neither team did much offensively early in the third quarter, and on its second drive of the second half, Danvers lined up to punt on 4th-and-22 from its own 34. Romain broke in from the left end and batted a Falcon punt that Frontero scooped up and carried into the end zone.
Danvers’ next drive ended quickly and resulted in two points for Marblehead when the snap from center went out of the end zone. The Magicians took advantage of good field position after the ensuing free kick and drove 47 yards in five plays, the last of which was a leaping grab by Craig of a throw by Gally to the back of the end zone to make the score 30-14 with 47 seconds left in the third quarter.
Marblehead gave the safety back in the fourth quarter on a similarly bad snap on a punt that went out of the end zone. Danvers scored on its ensuing drive that included a conversion on 4th-and-18. Borders ran into the end zone from two yards to cut Danvers’ deficit to seven points with 4:19 left.
The Magicians managed to chew all but 1:09 off the clock before they punted, and the Falcons were unable to go anywhere in the increasingly soggy conditions.