PEABODY — Quarterbacks John von Barta of Swampscott and Luke Maglione of Peabody combined to put the football up 61 times in an air raid Friday night at Coley Lee Field.
Looking back, it was one throw on an unscripted play by von Barta that wound up making all the difference in the game.
Late in the second quarter, von Barta escaped the grasp of two Tanner defenders while down the field senior Chase Groothuis never stopped working himself open, improvised a corner pattern and caught a 19-yard touchdown pass that sent the Big Blue on their way to a 28-6 victory.
The junior signal caller ended the night throwing four touchdown passes with two hitting Groothuis, one going to Jack Duffy on the opening series (27 yards up the sideline) and another going to Noah Bascon (an electric 51 yard catch-and-run) in the third. von Barta completed 13-of-21 passes for 194 yards and Swampscott (2-1) made it two straight wins after being shutout in their season opener.
“Hard work is contagious and we’ve got kids with great work ethics that wanted to get better,” said Swampscott head coach Peter Bush. “A lot of our juniors that are playing for the first time have grown up a lot in these last two weeks.”
The Tanners, and their senior captain Maglione, put together a season high 314 yards of offense. They didn’t punt after the game’s first series, committed no turnovers and still put up a only six points after missing a field goal and ending drives on downs at the Swampscott 36-, 10-, 19- and 28-yard lines.
“Week 1 we had three first downs, so there’s a lot of progress there. The next step is punching it in,” said Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt, whose team dipped to 0-3 for the first time since 2017. “There’s a lot of frustrated kids in our locker room. We have to be mature and understand that there’s going to be a learning curve with a young team like we have.”
Throwing for 252 yards and completing 21-of-40 passes, Maglione had a clean pocket most of the night. He expertly mixed short patterns and downfield shots to keep the Big Blue defense off balance, hitting six different pass catchers and completing 10 straight at one point between the first and second quarters.
His slant pattern at a perfect height hit Mark Mendonca for a 24-yard score that made it 14-6 early in the second quarter.
“It feels like No. 4 (Maglione) has been their quarterback forever,” Bush said of Peabody’s three-year starter. “So we knew they’d be able to spread it around and throw the ball. Peabody’s always a well-coached team that gives us a battle.”
Mendonca caught eight balls of 93 yards, Cory Dooley proved reliable on third downs and caught six for 49 yards, and junior Brian Collins-Dixon was a revelation with five grabs for 64 yards.
Shifted to running back, Joaquim Chaves had 54 total yards, but some timely passes knocked down by Swampscott’s Bascon and Duffy when they were backed up defending the red zone made sure the Big Blue got off the field.
Peabody’s only three-and-outs of the night came on the first two serieses and conspired to put the hosts behind the 8-ball. A bad snap on that punt gave Swampscott a short field, which led to Duffy’s quick score. Not long after, von Barta connected with Groothuis on a slant for a 14-0 first quarter lead.
“This is a tough place to play, so being up 14 right off the bat and getting that fast start was huge,” said Bush. “That took the crowd out of it and took away a lot of the momentum they had from this being their home opener.”
Will Bush rushed for a game-high 70 yards for the Big Blue and also had a key 31-yard catch-and-run off a screen pass on one of his team’s scoring drives.
Groothuis’ 56 receiving yards were Swampscott’s high-water mark while Bascon had 45, Bush and Duffy both had 39 and Doyle Delano caught three balls while also making some bone crunching blocks from the fullback position.
Swampscott 28, Peabody 6
at Coley Lee Field, Peabody
Swampscott (2-1);14;7;7;0;28
Peabody (0-3);0;6;0;0;6
Scoring summary
S — Jack Duffy 27 pass from John von Barta (Will Rowe kick)
S — Chase Groothuis 4 pass from von Barta (Rowe kick)
P — Mark Mendonca 24 pass from Luke Maglione (kick blocked)
S — Groothuis 19 pass from von Barta (Rowe kick)
S — Noah Bascon 51 pass from von Barta (Rowe kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Swampscott — Will Bush 14-70, John von Barta 2-29; Peabody — Joaquim Chaves 10-30, Yadiel Villanueva 5-24, Luke Maglione 5-12, Drake Dixon 4-(-4) .
PASSING: Swampscott — von Barta 14-21-194-4-0; Peabody — Maglione 24-40-252-1-0.
RECEIVING: Swampscott — Chase Groothuis 4-56, Noah Bascon 2-45, Jack Duffy 2-39, Will Bush 3-39, Doyle Delano 3-15; Peabody — Mark Mendonca 8-93, Brian Collins Dixon 5-64, Cory Dooley 6-49, Chaves 2-24, Max Silvia 2-21, Dixon 1-1.