GLOUCESTER — Everything that was working so well for the Gloucester football team in last Friday’s impressive win over Salem didn’t carry over to this week’s rare Thursday clash with Swampscott.
Time and time again, the Fishermen were bottled up at the line of scrimmage, failing to move the chains with regularity and putting the ball back in the opponents’ hands. The Big Blue, meanwhile, capitalized on their strong defensive efforts, scoring three times before halftime and cruising to the finish line for a convincing 27-6 victory.
Swampscott, which was coming off of its bye week, held the hosts to just 108 yards of total offense in the setback.
“We gave their linebackers free runs and their defensive line played very aggressive,” said Gloucester (3-2) head coach Dan O’Connor.
Big Blue (3-2) running back Henry Beuttler gashed the Gloucester defense with a number of slippery runs, two of which went for touchdowns, as he rumbled his way to a game-high 185 yards on the ground. It was a 20-6 Swampscott at the break thanks in large part to those two TD runs, and Gloucester just wasn’t able to do enough after the break to climb back into it.
“He’s patient; he’s good,” O’Connor said of Beuttler. “It wasn’t like the quick hitters that we’re used to seeing sometimes. He sat back, he had some patience and waited for the play to develop then hit the hole and took advantage with some big gains.”
Gloucester forced a Swampscott punt on its opening drive, but the Big Blue were perfect offensively from there until halftime. After a Fishermen 3-and-out, the visitors strung together a seven play, 63-yard scoring drive, capped off with the first of many impressive long runs from Beuttler: a 24-yard touchdown scamper up the middle.
On its next possession, Will Bush (59 rushing yards) then put Swampscott up 13-0 on the first play from scrimmage to open the second quarter, finding paydirt from 15 yards out. It took the Big Blue just one play to find the end zone on their next first half possession, with Beuttler breaking a couple of tackles at the line of scrimmage, spinning his way free and racing down the sidelines for an 85-yard score.
Gloucester scored its lone touchdown with just 26 seconds to go in the first half. That came after a lengthy 16-play, 61-yard drive that ate up over eight minutes of game time, and was finished off with a 1-yard scoring plunge from Thomas Cribbs.
In an uneventful second half overall that saw the two teams exchange defensive blows, Swampscott would ultimately finalize the scoring with a 4-yard passing connection from quarterback John von Barton to Joe Marino with under a minute to play.