Marblehead Torches Danvers [VIDEO]

's varsity football team moved into first place in NEC/CAL league play at 3-0 after crushing the Falcons 48-6 in Danvers Friday night.

Marblehead (6-2) came out of the gate fast, scoring the first three times they had the ball before Danvers was able to get on the board.

Will Quigley took the ball in from the three-yard line, capping a nine-play drive that ate up 4:44 seconds to open the scoring.

Marblehead’s defense, led by pressure up front from Bing Bial, Joel Katz and Jeffery Peras, stopped Danvers on fourth and two at the Marblehead 42, giving Ian Maag and the offense the ball back.

Maag led the visitors down the field and hit Philip Coughlin in the end zone at 8:37 of the second quarter, and the Red & Black never looked back.

Defensive pressure snuffed out the next Falcon possession, Danvers quarterback Ryan Chasse was sacked for a nine yard loss on third and seven by Oliver Gregory and Chris Piper, and Marblehead got the ball back with just under six minutes to play in the first half.

Gus Percy came on for his only series of the game, nursing an ankle injury, but he made it count, hooking up with Colton Dana in front of the Falcon sideline for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Ian Maag ran in the two-point conversion and the Magicians were up 21-0 with 2:37 left before halftime.

“They really bit on a nice fake by Bing (Bial) on a screen play,” Dana said. “Gus made a good throw to me and I was able to catch it in stride with one guy to beat and I got into the end zone.”

“Our offense gets a lot of the credit when we win, but our defense has really been playing well lately,” Dana said.

“Coach just had me in for that one series, we want my ankle to be 100% for the Beverly game,” Percy said. “Colton made a good move to get open and another good move to get by the last Danvers guy, it was a great run.”

Despite being up at the half, Marblehead coach Jim Rudloff was concerned about the way his team was playing.

“I thought that Danvers was playing us very tough in the first half, I really was hoping to set them back on their heels, we had the lead, but I was by no means satisfied,” Rudloff said.

The team responded quite well in the second half, ripping off 27 unanswered points and bottling up the Danvers backfield, which pleased the head coach.

“We talked about this game before it started, there was no way we wanted to have another situation like the Newburyport game, let’s face it, we should have won that game, and tonight this is a game we have to win for people to respect us,” Rudloff said.

Maag hit Brian Daly for 6 points with five minutes left in the third quarter, the junior’s second touchdown pass of the game, putting the Magicians ahead 27-6.

Quigley busted in from the 19 to put Marblehead up 34-6 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter, prompting Rudloff to call for replacements.

Sophomore Matt Millett took over under center in the fourth quarter for Marblehead and scored two touchdowns, running in from the four at 6:15 and from the 28 with four minutes left in the game.

“We kind of used the Newburyport game as motivation going forward, no one wants to feel that way again,” Percy said.

“We can’t be concerned with what other teams are doing, who’s playing, who’s not playing, we have to take care of what we do,” Rudloff said. “We have two games left at Piper Field and hopefully the league title will go through Marblehead.”

Swampscott and Beverly (both 2-0) square off Saturday afternoon at Hurd Stadium; game time has been changed from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. because of the SAT test Saturday morning.

The Panthers come to Marblehead next Friday night at 7 p.m.