SWAMPSCOTT — The new lights at Blocksidge Field will debut Friday night for a Northeastern Conference football clash that promises to be a good one. English and Swampscott will meet in the 5th annual Jeff Blydell Cup.
Both teams are excited to play against one another in their respective season openers.
“It’s Week One,” English coach Chris Carroll said. “It’s everyone’s first crack at the new season. You know each other but it’s a new year, it’s a new team. There’s not a lot of film to watch on this year’s team. It’s exciting, and to have it on Week One adds some excitement to it.”
“We’ve lost to them the last three years,” Swampscott coach Bobby Serino said. “It was 14-14 at the half last year. I thought we were doing alright. We had some bad bounces. They stopped us inside the 10-yard line once or twice. The coaches have done a great job getting ready for this game so we’re looking forward to it.”
The Blydell Cup was established in 2015. It honors the late Jeff Blydell, a youth sports coach who dedicated countless hours to athletes in both communities. Blydell founded the North Shore Phillies of the North Shore Baseball League in 2007, which Carroll played for and now manages. Blydell died in 2015 after a battle with cancer.
“To me, Jeff was a great guy, most importantly, and a great mentor and coach,” Carroll said. “He started the North Shore Phillies in 2007. We kind of all just hit it off with Jeff there. He loved sports, he loved teaching sports, he loved his family. He was a good role model and a great person. He graduated from English but both cities shared Jeff. This game’s a great tribute to him.”
Serino agrees.
“Me and Chris got together, we had an idea and we went with it,” Serino said. “It’s the fifth year of the Blydell Cup. It’s an honor for a great guy who dedicated a lot of time to youth sports. He coached the North Shore Phillies, which Chris took over. He was a great guy.”
The rivalry between English and Swampscott runs deep. English has won three of the four Blydell Cups. But the Bulldogs aren’t overlooking the Big Blue in any way.
“Swampscott’s a good program,” Carroll said. “They always have a dangerous offense. It’s been like that for years. They have a great defense, they’re well-coached and they’re a good program altogether. They had a deep run last year and they return a lot of players from that team. We know they’re a deep, explosive team. We’ll be ready for them Friday night.
“We have to play disciplined and we have to play our style of football. It’s cliche for me to say but it’s true. Playing our style of football and being disciplined in what I expect to be a very good Friday night environment will be important.”
The Big Blue, who were knocked off the undefeated ranks after losing to English in last year’s battle, are looking to play mistake-free football.
“We have to stop the run on defense,” Serino said. “They have some deep threats in the passing game. (English quarterback Mathias Fowler) can run out of the pocket so we have to contain him. We made a lot of mistakes when we lost to English last year. We have a lot of kids that played in that game last year and they’re hungry to play in it this year.”
Kickoff for Friday’s game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Other games Friday are Saugus at Bedford (4), Gloucester at Revere (6:30), Brockton at Classical (7), Marblehead at North Andover (7), Salem at Peabody (7), Newburyport at Lynnfield (7) and Tech at Nashoba (7). On Saturday, Bishop Fenwick visits Hamilton-Wenham (1) and St. John’s travels to Haverhill (3).