Marblehead Cancels Big Blue Playoff Plans

The team couldn’t get their high-flying offense on track Thursday morning in Marblehead, and the Magicians ran to a 21-7 win at Piper Field. Marblehead used two touchdowns by running back Will Quigley to power their way to the post-season and a 5-0 record in league play.

Marblehead wins the NEC/CAL Tier II with the win, Swampscott comes in second, finishing 4-1. Marblehead will play Wakefield in a first-round playoff game Tuesday evening.

“Marblehead did what they did all year, they played good defense and we didn’t make any plays and it killed us,” head coach Steve Dembowski said. “We dropped passes, we weren’t sharp on some punts, we didn’t tackle well, and Quigley ran great for them.”

Swampscott (9-2) hadn’t lost since dropping a two-day marathon to Malden in October and was looking to get back to the playoffs with a win Thursday.

Swampscott never got their offense rolling on Thursday, losing the ball on their first offensive play, and never gaining any traction against a solid Magician defense.

Ian Maag scored the first touchdown of the game with 5:27 left in the second quarter, rolling in from the three. Mike Walsh and Aidan Lang tackled holder Maag short of the goal line after a low snap on the PAT, and the Headers were up 6-0.

Swampscott began their third possession of the game, moving into Marblehead territory, but turned the ball over on downs, stalling out at the Magicians nine yard line. Swampscott was able to keep the drive going earlier when Lang hit Aaron Cronin on a fake punt for a first down, the first Big Blue highlight of the game.

“We just didn’t make plays, today, we were on defense for long stretches in the first half and we kind of got worn down on defense because we weren’t able to keep the ball moving offensively,” Dembowski said.

Things got worse for the visitors late in the third quarter when Will Quigley scored his first TD of the game. The senior co-captain busted out for a 56 yard score with five seconds remaining in the third. Maag hit John Perry for two points, and the Big Blue trailed 14-0 with 10 minutes left in their season.

Swampscott finally broke through when Walsh carried it in from the goal line, Nick Meninno’s PAT made it 14-7 with just under five minutes left in the game.

The Big Blue’s defense rose up and forced a Marblehead punt with 3:28 left, but Swampscott couldn’t convert on fourth and one, Walsh’s pass over the middle to Richard Sullivan falling incomplete. Quigley closed out the scoring with his second touchdown of the day.

“Swampscott’s a great team, they played hard, we knew we had to stop their screen passes,” Quigley said. “We spent hours and hours watching film to get ready for them.”

“We really had trouble with the screen game, and the dropped passes didn’t help,” Dembowski said. “We kind of had an extension of the Gloucester game, we didn’t do what we needed to do to win, we played in slow motion, they played fast and wore us down.”

“Marblehead prepared really well for us, give them credit, they played a great game against us,” Walsh said. “We really didn’t play the way we wanted to, defensively we played well, but we never really got going on offense.”