In the clash of the Northeast Conference titans, the Magicians bested the Chieftains, 21-7.
The hype building up to this game was amazing as the teams competed in a roaring environment at Piper Field.
Despite some pregame transportation troubles, the Chieftains stayed mentally prepared, and all players knew what must be done.
On Marblehead’s first play from scrimmage, they pulled out a play-action pass that surprised the Chieftains’ defense. Junior quarterback Finn Gallop found junior receiver Rylan Golden for the 80-yard touchdown.
That set the theme of this game: big plays. Neither team crafted many concrete drives and would generate offense off big plays or turnovers.
Masco got things rolling when junior defensive end Lucas Magnifico stripped senior quarterback Colt Wales and junior linebacker Achilleas Koutoulas took it 54 yards back before getting tackled at the seven-yard line.
“Now having the bye week we just need to recover,” said Magnifico. “This is a great team and
I’m proud of all we’ve done this season, there’s no doubt that we can come back and be ready to go for playoffs.”
Masco’s junior running back gem Jack Fabiano tied the score, 7-7, from four yards out off the Koutoulas fumble.
This would be Masco’s only score of the game against a suffocating Magicians’ defense that hasn’t allowed over eight points in their last five contests.
Fabiano had a solid game with 20 carries for 99 yards but that was the first game in five weeks where he didn’t crack 100 yards and the Magians held him in check for the most part.
The Magicians’ defense was coming up with game-changing plays all night long, including three interceptions and a crazy goal line stand deep in the third quarter.
Junior quarterback Drew Gustafson and company looked to the air a lot tonight as he completed 15-32 passes for 135 yards, but unfortunately was not able to find the end zone.
“We need to work really hard at practice this week, learn from this loss, and start to focus on the playoffs and the team we end up playing,” said Gustafson.
Gustafson’s best ball of the night came late in the third quarter when he gave junior receiver Cal Weidman a chance to go up and get it over the corner, which is exactly what he did. Weidman hauled in five catches for 79 yards, leading the Chieftains’ receiving core.
Masco senior Devin O’Brien had some nice catches with his best game so far this season, taking three catches for 30 yards.
“Now we have a week to work on ourselves and get back into the flow of motion. We’ll be back, the playoff game is our main focus and we’ll put the past behind us,” said O’Brien.
An interesting part of the game that you don’t see every day is when both teams threw an interception on back-to-back plays. After the Marblehead crowd erupted from a Wales interception in the safety position, Wales (now at quarterback) threw it right back to Masco when Weidman came up with the interception in the endzone.
The Marblehead play designs were creative and their dual quarterback approach was tricky to pick up. Wales was Marblehead’s leading rusher, running eight times for 49 yards while also hitting senior receiver Crew Monaco for an 18-yard touchdown to begin the third quarter. Gallop led the passing attack, only completing four passes but picking up 94 yards, 80 coming from the first play.
A costly turnover during a fumble on fourth and inches on Masco’s own 10 yard-line set up the go-ahead touchdown for senior running back Yandel Garcia to end the first quarter.
Other than a few big plays and that turnover in their own goal-to-go, the Chieftain defense kept them in the game until the clock hit zeros. The defensive linemen handled the rush nicely and the linebackers didn’t let much by them.
“I was proud of our fight; it’s what we do, we fight,” said head coach Patrick Sheehan. “They had a great game plan and it would’ve been really easy with how difficult it was to get yardage to give up points. They had a lot of big plays, and we made many last-second tackles, but for the most part, we kept them out of the endzone. We’ve got a team of fighters.”
Masco now has a whole week to rest up and learn from this loss, as they will likely play a similar caliber team to open up the playoffs.
“We will break down the film, see what we did well and what we could’ve done better, and come up with a great game plan with whoever the MIAA faces us against in two weeks. We will be ready,” said Sheehan.
This game concludes the Chieftains’ regular season and will leave them curious about what team is next on the schedule. The MIAA should release the playoff schedules late afternoon this Sunday, so stay tuned.