MARBLEHEAD — Sometimes, protecting your quarterback goes further than just keeping him upright in the pocket.
Early Friday night, Peabody’s Matt Dresser and Zaiden Nazaire proved as much. The hefty pair of offensive linemen got out in front of QB Dominik Mercier, pulling on a designed run and then escorting him 79 yards to the end zone.
The downfield blocks paved the way for the first of Mercier’s three scores and set the tone for a dominant first half which sent the Tanners by Marblehead, 38-15, at Piper Field.
“Wherever those guys go, I’ll follow them,” Mercier said of his linemen. In helping the Tanners improve to 6-1, he ran for 158 yards and three touchdowns and threw for 188 yards plus another score. Peabody scored on three of its first four possessions, didn’t punt until the fourth quarter and had 417 yards of total offense.
“The offense got rolling early, which hasn’t been the case the last few weeks,” Mercier noted. “It felt like everything was clicking tonight.”
The Tanners led 24-0 at halftime thanks largely to three turnovers by Marblehead (2-4). Peabody senior Aniel Espinal ripped the ball free and recovered it after the Magicians drove over midfield on their first possession and a 34-yard TD run by Mercier turned that fumble into seven points for the visitors.
Marblehead had some momentum when the Tanners missed a field goal, but Espinal tipped a pass that senior captain Jack Smith intercepted to get the ball right back. That led to a TD run by Drake Dixon (68 yards rushing) and a 21-0 advantage.
“Come to Marblehead and it is a difficult place to play … not just for us, for everybody,” Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt said. “So to start fast and get ahead was huge. Marblehead is so well coached, so fundamentally sound that you know they’re going to play tough, good football and not give up. Putting up points early set the tone for how we could play the rest of the game.”
Indeed the Magicians counter-punched throughout and caught some tough breaks. QB Sawyer Adams fumbled going into the end zone in the second quarter for a touchback and Marblehead also lost an interception to a roughing-the-passer penalty. Adams engineered a scoring drive to star the third quarter, getting his team within two scored at 24-7, but Peabody responded.
Espinal found space in the middle of the Magician defense on a broken play and Mercier pulled up at the sticks and hit him in stride for a 27-yard touchdown and a 31-7 lead.
“Honestly, that wasn’t the play but I didn’t love the look we got and I knew with the receivers I have out there that someone would make a play,” Mercier said. “It was a little bit of backyard football.”
The teams traded fourth quarter scores as Marblehead’s James Machado punched out in from nine yards and out and the Tanners once again responded with a long drive, this one capped by Mercier’s 11 yard run (and his 15th rushing touchdown of the season).
“We finished, which was good to see,” Bettencourt said. “I though Dom had a great night. Drake (Dixon) had another good great game. He’s running with good vision and he’s making good decisions.”
Mercier completed his first 13 passes and finished the night a nearly spotless 21-for-25. Espinal caught seven passes for 77 yards (including a few jet sweep style pop-passes) while senior captain Mark Mendonca hauled in six for 59 yards and senior captain Brian Collins Dixon caught five.
Smith recovered a fumble, forced by Espinal, in the fourth quarter, giving the visitors a total of four turnovers in the game with Espinal and Smith having a hand in three of them. Ryan Maguire, a sophomore, had a solid game at linebacker as well.
Senior captain Jake Marcotullio drilled a 25-yard field goal late in the second quarter (set up by Espinal’s 34-yard punt return) and was also a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points in his return from injury.
Peabody 38, Marblehead 15
at Piper Field, Marblehead
Peabody (6-1);14;10;7;7;38
Marblehead (2-4);0;0;7;8;15
Scoring summary
P — Dominik Mercier 79 run (Jake Marcotullio kick)
P — Mercier 34 run (Marcotullio kick)
P — Drake Dixon 3 run (Marcotullio kick)
P — Marcotullio 25 FG
M — Sawyer Adams 5 run (Finbar Bresnahan kick)
P — Aniel Espinal 27 pass from Mercier (Marcotullio kick)
M — James Machado 9 run (Adams rush)
P — Mercier 11 run (Marcotullio kick)
Individual Statistics
RUSHING: Peabody — Dominik Mercier 15-158, Drake Dixon 15-68, Joe Fagundes 1-3; Marblehead — Sawyer Adams 11-66, James Machado 10-47, Vidal Clark 4-38, Kyle Pitzer 2-24.
PASSING: Peabody — Mercier 21-25-188-1-0; Marblehead — Adams 10-16-110-0-1.
RECEIVING: Peabody — Aniel Espinal 8-77, Mark Mendonva 6-59, Brian Collins Dixon 5-36, Jack Smith 1-9, Ty Lomasney 1-7; Marblehead — Bailey Finkle 3-29, Alex Herman 1-29, Madden Lyons 2-27, Machado 2-22, Marcus Waitekus 1-2, Nic Epstein 1-1.