Magicians' Team Speed Too Much For Ipswich

It certainly wasn’t the way Ipswich coach Ted Flaherty wanted his team to start their season at home Friday night. 's football team scored four times in the first half and twice in the second half on their way to a 40-8 dismantling of the Tigers.

“Things looked good for us early,” Flaherty said. “Marblehead had a 7-0 lead, but I thought we were playing well, and then they just exploded on us.”

The key difference-maker for Marblehead was their team speed, Flaherty said.

“I’m very impressed with the team speed of Marblehead, their quickness was tough to stop,” Flaherty said. “In addition to being very fast, they were very opportunistic too, every time we turned the ball over, Marblehead turned it into points and we just couldn’t make any headway against them.”

Ipswich avoided the shutout when Pete Moutevelis ran a kick-off back for a score and freshman quarterback Nick Andreas hit Luis Galanis for the two-point conversion, but by then the game was in Marblehead’s back pocket.

Ian Maag scored on a five-yard run to open the scoring for the Magicians and the floodgates opened after that. Will Quigley busted loose for a 58 yard touchdown run, Colton Dana scored on a short pass from Gus Percy, and the Magicians were in control.

Up by three touchdowns, Percy, Zach Cuzner and John Perry scored rushing touchdowns for Marblehead before Moutevelis broke the shutout.

“We played very well in the beginning, but Marblehead really picked it up as the game wore on,” Flaherty said. “I was impressed by the way Marblehead played, as a team, they really did a good job against us.”

After Friday’s loss, Ipswich hits the road for four straight road games, the Magicians head to Miller Field in Winthrop Friday night to take on the Vikings. Winthrop got drilled at home by Mike Walsh and his Big Blue teammates on Friday night 34-14.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of Walsh’s hands, and we did that for seven minutes to start the game,” Winthrop coach Sean Driscoll said. “As soon as he got the ball after we scored (to go up 7-0 with four minutes to play in the first quarter), he took over.”

Swampscott scored 26 consecutive points on the way to Friday’s win, Walsh ran and passed for over 100 yards on the night.

Despite the 32-point win for Marblehead Friday night, Flaherty said he saw some good things from his young squad.

“I think Marblehead might have been surprised that we were playing them so tough early, but then we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers and Marblehead took it to us,” Flaherty said. “We really had a perfect storm of mistakes, and Marblehead made us pay for them, they’re a good team and they’ll make some noise this season.”

Game time Friday night for the 2-0 Magicians is 7 p.m. at Miller Field. The Vikings have dropped two in a row at home, and haven’t lost three straight at home since the 1990’s.

Winthrop’s starting quarterback James Barker was knocked out of the Swampscott game in the fourth quarter with an injury. The Vikings already have two starters out with injuries, junior running back Robert Diaz and sophomore linebacker David Gallo.

Gus Percy threw for 76 yards Friday, while Quigley chipped in with 88 yards on the ground. Senior John Perry rolled for 97 yards on the ground for Marblehead, all 97 coming in the fourth quarter.