MARBLEHEAD — The blustery winds and cooling temperatures at Piper Field Thursday night made for some chilly viewing experiences.
But the host Marblehead Magicians remained red hot on the gridiron.
Winning their third straight contest, the hosts controlled play from the get-go and rolled over Beverly, 40-7. It was their 12th straight victory over the Panthers, one they achieved by controlling both the clock and game flow.
Marblehead’s linebackers set the tone early with physical run stuffing and instantaneous hits on pass plays. Bodie Smith, captain Brady Selvais, Rylan Golden and, coming up from his spot at strong safety, captain Crew Monaco, were at the forefront of that unit.
“That group has made a big difference for us these last few weeks,” said Marblehead (3-2) head coach Jim Rudloff.
Although he didn’t find the end zone, Magicians senior Yandel Garcia led all ballcarriers with 91 rushing yards on a dozen carries. As a team, Marblehead rambled for 270 yards on the ground and finished with 379 yards of total offense.
Beverly, conversely, had just 84 yards of offense, with 29 of those coming on the last three plays of the evening during running time.
“It’s a little like bringing a gun to a knife fight,” Beverly head coach Jeff Hutton surmised. His team’s only score came when junior Xavier Auk returned a kickoff 87 yards on the final play of the first half for his second such touchdown of 2024.
“We’re good in spurts, but then we take bad angles, we turn the ball over … we do things that young teams that are still learning to play at this level do,” Hutton added. “And (the Magicians) have really good athletes over there; their linebackers were fast.”
Beverly still leads the all-time series between the two squads, holding a slim 47-42-4 advantage.
Marblehead needed just three plays to score on its first drive, with Brady Selvais crashing in from six yards out. The lead grew to 13-0 when, just 10 seconds into the second quarter, when Colt Wales found Crew Monaco on a short toss and he took it 5 yards to paydirt.
The two teams traded fumbles in the middle of the second stanza, with junior Jerome Sutton falling on one for Beverly and Wales returning the favor for the Magicians two plays later. Again, the hosts needed just three plays to punch it in as Wales ran it 27 yards down to the Panther 6-yard line, then ran it up the gut himself from four yards out and a 20-0 advantage.
The Magicians scored once more before the break following a Cam Quigley interception at midfield. Marching 50 yards in seven plays — and helped greatly by a 16-yard run by Yandel Garcia on 4th-and-1 from the 31 — MHS capped the drive on a Finn Gallup to Sam Thompson slant pass from 17 yards out.
Gallup, a junior, finished the evening completing 5-of-7 passes for 102 yards.
Beverly went into the locker room on a good note, however, when Auk ran back the kickoff as the first half ended. He received the kick on the right hash, followed his blockers across the field and broke away down the left sidelines before veering back inside and outrunning any Magicians standing between him and the goal line. Maverick Genest’s point after boot made it 26-7 at the break.
“They also came out hitting hard in the second half,” Rudloff said of Beverly. “That was impressive. That showed me they weren’t going to quit. They kept fighting the entire game.”
Following a scoreless third quarter, Marblehead found the end zone twice more in the fourth. Bruising back Bernardo Bannis bulled his way into the end zone from two yards out, and with three minutes to play junior Breydan Callahan scored his first varsity touchdown after taking a pitch and running four yards to paydirt around right end.
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