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Gloucester tops Swampscott in battle of unbeatens

Saturday, October, 06 By Matt Langone
Sports editor

SWAMPSCOTT | After Saturday's clash between the Swampscott and Gloucester football teams, Fishermen head coach Paul Ingram admitted that there is no real way to gameplan for the Big Blue's explosive pass-first offense.

In the mainly run-oriented Northeastern Conference, Gloucester had rolled to an unbeaten record entering Saturday. But Swampscott was also the owner of a perfect record using its unique shotgun offense.

Despite seeing a spread offense for the first time all season, Gloucester was up to the task, picking off Swampscott quarterback Peter Kinchley twice inside the red zone en route to a 21-14 victory on the road at Blocksidge Field. The Fishermen improved to 5-0, while the Big Blue fell to 4-1. But the outcome won't effect the standings, as Gloucester is part of the NEC Large and Swampscott resides in the NEC Small.

"Swampscott can really put you in some predicaments," said Ingram, who was happy to come away with the narrow win. "They ran some formations that we hadn't practiced against. But our kids did a good job on the fly. You just can't re-enact that kind of offense in practice."

Kinchley did throw for 147 yards on the afternoon, but completed just nine of 20 passes. He was also sacked three times, two of which were recorded by Gloucester junior Ross Carlson.

Ironically the biggest play of the game was a pass play for the Fishermen, who usually prefer to pound the ball on the ground.

With Gloucester already leading 7-0 in the second quarter, courtesy of an Andrew Fulford (19 rushes, 97 yards) 15-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the game, the Fishermen forced Swampscott to punt after a three-and-out. On the first play from scrimmage after the punt Gloucester quarterback Rick Gallant hit tight end Cam Marston on a wide open crossing route, the senior then turned up field, broke one tackle and raced down the sideline for a 68-yard TD. It was the only pass attempt of the game for the Fishermen

"That pass play really got the momentum going for us," said Ingram. "We had kind of lost the momentum for a while, but that got it back for us."

Swampscott would respond with seven seconds left in the first half, when Kinchley hit junior Stephen Moran (three catches, 38 yards) for a 13-yard strike to make it 14-7. However, it was an unsatisfactory 22 minutes of football for Big Blue head coach Stephen Dembowski, whose team was outgained 169-108.

"We had a terrible first half defensively," Dembowski said. "We didn't hit well and we didn't get off the ball."

Swampscott marched all the way down to the Gloucester 19-yard line on its opening drive in the second half, but the march would come to a stop there as the Big Blue turned it over on downs. Gloucester then put together a punishing 13-play drive capped off by a 1-yard TD run by Fulford one minute into the fourth quarter. However, 6-foot, 255-pound running back Anthony Enderle was the secret weapon on the drive for the Fishermen, tallying six rushes for 34 yards.

The Big Blue would cut it back down to a seven-point deficit with slightly less than four minutes left in the game. Kinchley found Trevor Wheeler (three catches, 91 yards) on a beautiful 29-yard score.

Nevertheless, the Fishermen had no problems recovering the ensuing onside kick, and Fulford was able to get a crucial fourth-and-one play to allow Gloucester to run the clock out.

"We missed on a few plays and the game came down to inches," Dembowski said. "When we play a team of Gloucester's caliber, we can't make mistakes, and we made too many little mistakes."