Magicians Look to Keep Rolling Tonight

's varsity football team will take the field tonight at Dr. Deering Stadium, looking to remain unbeaten in league play.

The Magicians may be fully focused on Danvers, but it’s difficult to ignore what Beverly and Swampscott are doing this fall.

“We know that Beverly and Swampscott have good teams, we’re aware of that,” running back Will Quigley said after last Friday’s night’s knockout of Salem at Bertram Field. “It’s not a cliché, but we really have to play one game at a time and focus on this week’s opponent, we had a good game against Salem, now we focus on Danvers.”

The Falcons have been struggling over the past few weeks, Swampscott wanted to establish the running game against them last Saturday afternoon at Blocksidge field, and after two three-and-outs, Big Blue coach Steve Dembowski changed the game plan.

“Danvers got creased a bit on the ground their last couple of games, so we thought we’d try to get the run going, that didn’t work, so we went back to what we do well, which is attack in the air,” Dembowski said.

Swampscott went up 13-0, Danvers closed it to 13-7 and then Air Swampscott kicked in and the home team won 47-14.

“We have our eyes on them, we know they have a good team, we would like nothing better than to meet them (Swampscott) on Thanksgiving with the league title and a playoff chance on the line,” quarterback Gus Percy said.

“Every game is tough in the NEC (Northeastern Conference), Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff said. “There are no easy games, you have the rivalries that make the games important and the fact that with the league schedule set up, more teams have a shot at a playoff bid late into the season.”

“We had a great practice heading into the Salem game,” quarterback Ian Maag said. “Our offensive line does a great job protecting me or Gus, whoever’s playing quarterback and they open big holes for Will, these league games are incredibly important and the team knows that.”

Swampscott, Marblehead, Gloucester, Beverly, Salem and Danvers make up the NEC/CAL Tier that has to be won to get to the playoffs, and even though there are no CAL teams in Marblehead’s tier, CAL teams have had a big impact on the 2011 Magicians.

“We felt horrible after the loss in Newburyport game (28-26), that’s a feeling I never want to experience again,” Quigley said.

Marblehead (5-2) has beaten Salem, Hingham, Pentucket, Ipswich and Gloucester this fall, losing to Newburyport and Winthrop.

“Winthrop is always a tough place to play, they were ready for us, we didn’t play as well as we should have, but give credit to the Vikings,” Rudloff said. “That game was a wake-up call for us about effort and commitment.”

Lots of eyeballs will be on the Magicians-Falcons game Friday night, with Marblehead looking to go 3-0 in league play, with games against Beverly (11/11) and Swampscott on Thanksgiving Day coming up.

Beverly and Swampscott square off Saturday afternoon at 2:30 at Hurd Stadium, both teams also undefeated in league play.

“We can only control what we do, we know Swampscott and Beverly are out there, but we’re not playing them this week, we’re playing Danvers and that’s what we’re concentrating on,” Maag said.

Dr. Deering Stadium is located behind the High School at 60 Cabot Road in Danvers.

"This is why we run and lift weights in June, July and August, now it's the payoff, when the people that put the work in are rewarded," Rudloff said.