IPSWICH — Despite winning their season opener last weekend, the Marblehead High football team was not pleased with the way it played. So they made it their mission in practice this past week to step up their play in all phases of the game.
Last night, those improved efforts showed.
Using some advantageous field position, the Magicians scored four touchdowns before halftime and tacked on two more in the second half to defeat Ipswich, 40-8, at Jack Welch Stadium.
"We did a good job; I'm very pleased," said Marblehead head coach Jim Rudloff, whose team averaged over seven-and-a-half yards per carry on the ground. "Our kids played the way we practiced all week. It was a nice step forward for us."
The visiting Magicians (now 2-0) ran 24 plays offensively in the first half; 20 of those came in Ipswich territory, including five times to begin drives.
Playing its season opener after a bye week, Ipswich played well in spurts, but didn't sustain enough consistency or pressure to defensively to slow down the bigger, faster and deeper Marbleheaders.
"It was like a perfect storm of consequences," is how Tigers head coach Ted Flaherty described the game afterward. "When you're a gap control defense that starts running into your teammate in front of you, that's a breakdown. And when you give a fast team confidence, they become that much faster."
Ipswich actually did a fine job defensively on the Magicians' first drive, stopping them on 4th-and-1 inside the red zone. Outside linebacker John Elnagger, in particular, was a ball hawk and delivered several thunderous tackles.
But once the Magicians found their footing offensively, they started scoring in bunches.
Quarterback Gus Percy (6-for-6, 76 yards) hit Bing Bial with a 20-yard reception, leading to Ian Maag's 5-yard touchdown scamper to make it 7-0 after one quarter. The Magicians scored three more times before intermission on a pretty 58-yard blast up the left sideline by captain Will Quigley (88 yards on 10 carries); a 7-yard scoring pass from Percy to Colton Dana; and a 20-yard keeper up the gut by Maag (who rotated at QB with Percy). In each instance, Christian Flores kicked the extra point.
"Our quarterbacks did a great job running the offense," said Rudloff. "Our running backs ran hard, and our wide receivers stepped it up, too."
Junior Zac Cuzner took an option toss right into the end zone from 10 yards out early in the third quarter to make it 34-0 before both teams put their backups into the game. Marblehead scored once more in the fourth quarter as senior John Perry (a game-high 97 yards, all in the final quarter) took it in from five yards out.
Ipswich got its only score following Perry's TD when junior Peter Moutevelis took the ensuing kickoff 81 yards up the right sideline for the score. Freshman quarterback Nick Andreas ("he showed a lot of poise for a 15-year-old making his first varsity start" said Flaherty) then found Louis Galanis for the 2-point conversion pass.
"Ipswich is going to be a good football team this year, mark my words," said Rudloff.
"Ted's done a great job up here; this is a football town with a great game night atmosphere. They've got tough young kids here who are only going to get better as the year goes on."
Flaherty, whose Tigers hit the road for four straight road games in the River Rival region beginning next Friday night at Triton, said his team must avoid the illegal procedure penalties and turnovers that plagued them in their opener.
"We need to work on our concentration, focus and especially poise, which we were lacking in," he said. "A good opponent sees those things from your team — and it's like blood in the water to a shark. We definitely have a lot of room for improvement."
