Marblehead Washes Away Harbormen

Marblehead running back Will Quigley scored three touchdowns Friday night and lifted the Magicians to a 22-19 win over Hingham.

“That kid’s a good back, he's very strong,” Hingham coach Paul Killinger said after the game. “We were able to get bodies on him, but we couldn't tackle him.”

Marblehead roared out early, scoring on the first play of the game, when Gus Percy hit Quigley on a screen pass at the Magician's 28 yard line and he took off on an 82-yard romp into the end zone. 

The Magicians elected to go for two and Percy hit Philip Coughlin in the left corner of the end zone, putting Marblehead 8-0 before many fans had the opportunity to take their seats.

“It’s great to have a guy like Will behind me,” Percy said. “He makes yards when there aren’t any and is real tough to bring down.”

The Magicians appeared to go up by two touchdowns when Quigley took it in late in the first quarter, but the 20-yard TD run was nullified because of a personal foul against Marblehead.

Hingham (1-3) made the most of the opportunity and cut the score to 8-6 when Kevin McCarthy ran it in from the two yard line. Marblehead stiffened up on defense and swallowed up McCarthy at the one as he tried for the two-point conversion.

Jeffery Pears, Kyle McCormack and co-captain Oliver Gregory led the way for the Marblehead defense.

“Our defense prepared well and played well,” 's head coach Jim Rudloff said. “Our guys play two-ways and they’ve done a good job getting in shape, it does make a big difference for us.”

Marblehead went up 14-6 with 17 seconds left in the first half when Quigley scored on a 15-yard touchdown run. Christian Flores booted the PAT and the home team went into the locker room up by 9 at the half.

The Magicians had a chance to blow the game open early in the third, but another penalty behind the play wiped out a 42 yard scoring pass from Ian Maag to Quigley at 8:41 of the third quarter.

Once again, Hingham took what Marblehead gave them and punched in two scores to take the lead for the first time of the evening.

Sam Benger took off on a 65 yard touchdown run at 9:36 and an extra point by John Fisher brought the Harbormen to within two points.

Hingham climbed all the way back when quarterback Reed McLeod snuck it in from the one yard line with 4:26 left in the third quarter. McLeod fumbled the snap on the two-point conversion and the visitors were up 19-15.

The lead lasted for all of 13 seconds when Quigley took the Hingham kickoff and cruised down the Marblehead sideline for an 80-yard touchdown. Flores put the PAT kick through the uprights and the Magicians had the lead again at 22-19.

When all of his rushing, passing and kickoff returns were tallied, Quigley had more than 225 yards Friday night. He also put two punts inside the Hingham 10 yard line to pin the Harbormen down twice in the second half.

Marblehead’s defense forced Hingham to punt and Marblehead picked up two first downs to run out the clock, earning their third win of the season.

“It was very important for us to win this game after ,” Rudloff said. “We had a few things to prove to ourselves and a few things to prove to other people who doubted us too.”

Marblehead (3-1) hosts the Newburyport Clippers Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Piper Field.

“We were disappointed when Hingham took the lead, but we didn’t hang our heads, we stayed in it,” Quigley said. “We didn’t want a repeat of the Winthrop game, the team was determined to win tonight.”