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Marblehead football drubbed by Lynn English

Friday, October, 12 By Mike Grenier
Staff writer

LYNN | Marblehead High football coach Doug Chernovetz doesn't believe in hexes or curses. He just wanted his team to play sound football against favored Lynn English, which has beaten the Magicians every year since 1992.

Marblehead couldn't do that last night. With all the incentive in the world to end Lynn English's mastery, the Magicians came out flat, yielded three touchdowns in the opening half and fell once again to the Bulldogs, 21-0, at chilly Manning Field. Marblehead dropped to 3-3.

"This is the second time this year that we've gotten a little press," said Chernovetz, referring to the pregame publicity that hyped the game, "and then we don't come to play. It's happened against both Lynn teams (the Lynn Classical Rams drubbed Marblehead, 42-13). This is a problem for us."

Coach Gary Molea's Lynn English Bulldogs didn't look or play like a team that entered the game with a 1-4 record.

Byron Brown sparked Lynn English in the first three minutes when he intercepted Marblehead quarterback Ian McKinley and ran it back 22 yards for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead. Bigger and stronger than the visitors, Lynn English pushed Marblehead around in the second quarter and tacked on 14 more points. Jason Gervaison hauled in a 23-yard scoring pass from Justin Young and Jermaine Patterson added a two-point conversion to stretch it to 15-0. Brown scored the final touchdown from 32 yards out, pushing it to 21-0.

"We badly needed it and it was nice to get it," said Molea, whose team was crushed by powerful Everett, 44-14, last week. "It was good that we responded from a drubbing, but we're still just a first half team. The second half has been a dagger in our back."

It'll be impossible for the Marblehead coaches to watch this game film and not be agitated. That's because the red zone turned out to be dead zone for the Magicians. They had the ball inside the Lynn English 20-yard line on four separate occasions, including three times inside the 10, and came away with nothing. Junior Nick Haller (14 carries, 28 yards), who played a gutsy game, scored a touchdown but it was nullified by a penalty. Marblehead ended up turning the ball over on downs every team it made deep penetration.

"This is a problem," said Chernovetz. "We opened the game by not fielding the ball cleanly (the Magicians' first possession started inside their own 10) and then we put the ball up for grabs and English intercepts. We never really recovered. We played better in the second half, but (overall), we didn't come to play. This game was a lesson for us."

McKinley (1 for 3 passing for 22 yards) was pulled in the first quarter and sophomore Hayes Richardson played the rest of the way at quarterback. He finished 10 for 22 for 110 yards, and Sam Perlow had a strong game with four receptions for 80 yards.