Saugus football set to open 2025 season with depth, experience and senior leadership

By Dom Nicastro

The Saugus High School football team is entering the 2025 season with something it hasn’t had in years: numbers, experience and a veteran offensive line that Coach Steve Cummings calls the strength of the program.

Coming off a rebuilding season in 2024, where the Sachems finished with a 3-8 record, relying heavily on underclassmen who were thrown into the fire early. Many of those same players return a year older and battle-tested, and with roster size up nearly 25%, Cummings said he feels his group is in a much better place heading into this fall.

“Our numbers are up,” Cummings said. “These are actually the best numbers we’ve had with a team in my seven years here. We’re just a shade under 50 guys on our roster, which I think last year we topped out at 38. We’re having more competitive practices, and I think a lot of it has to do with our upperclassmen this year … just getting guys out and being role models in the building.”

  The Sachems will lean heavily on their five senior captains: Kobe Jette, Jordan Rodriguez, Chris Mazin, Ryan Shea and Nathan Santos.

• Jette, the returning right tackle, is drawing college interest after transforming himself in the weight room and becoming a force up front. “He’s probably 6-5, 270, and he just moves, he plays violent with his hands, is a student of the game,” Cummings said. “Some school’s gonna land him next year and be really, really happy they did.”
• Rodriguez continues to be the team’s versatile weapon, having played quarterback, receiver and cornerback in recent years. “He’s played close to 30 varsity football games in his life. The lights aren’t anything new to him,” said Cummings.
• Mazin has grown into a physical running back and linebacker. “Chris is a throwback,” Cummings said. “He likes the contact. He wants to hit. He runs the ball hard. He tackles well.”
• Shea, an all-conference player in 2024, led the league in interceptions and is also a major offensive threat. “He’s one of those kids that we kind of tell the quarterback, if he has a little bit of room to get the ball, make something big happen,” Cummings said.
• Santos, the fullback and middle linebacker, is the steady presence. “He’s that guy that you can just count on in our program,” said Cummings.

  If there’s one clear identity for the Sachems this year, it’s their line play.

“We’re returning seven guys on our offensive line that have played significant minutes of varsity football,” Cummings said. “So we have everyone who started last year back. We’re bigger, we’re stronger, and they know how to handle pretty much everything.”

The unit includes Jette at right tackle; seniors Larry Barrows and Moses Guadalupe Perez competing at right guard; Laith Haddad at center; sophomore Steph Cazeau at left guard; and seniors Nick DaSilva and David Perez battling at left tackle.

Cummings said their dominance has already shown up in preseason scrimmages. “One of the running backs was like, ‘I don’t have to make a decision until I’m like three or four yards down the field.’ It’s such a great feeling,” he said.

  Sophomore quarterback Eli Fialho is set to take the reins after splitting time last season. Cummings has been impressed with his offseason progress.

“He’s just so much further ahead than he was last year, understandably,” Cummings said. “He’s getting the ball out on time. He’s using his feet a lot better to drive the ball down the field … he’s just really progressing to the kind of quarterback we want.”

Cummings noted Fiahlo’s improved decision-making in a recent scrimmage at Triton. “He gives a little shoulder pump to make the corner bite up, to open up the back part of that end zone,” Cummings said, referring to a corner-of-the-end-zone touchdown pass to Shea. “Last year, he stares down that corner the whole time, and it probably doesn’t break open … This year, he’s just kind of added some of that stuff into his repertoire.”

  Last season’s opener against Cambridge Rindge & Latin showed how green the Sachems were.

“I was just watching the film, I’m just amazed at how incredibly young we were on that football field,” Cummings said. “Everybody else was brand new … This year we’ve got about nine guys on both sides of the ball that have not just played but started games.”

That experience, Cummings believes, will pay off in close games. “Last year we ended up on the wrong side of a couple of close games,” he said. “This year … now we can start turning those games into Ws.”

The Sachems open their season at home on Friday, Sept. 12, at 6:30 p.m. against Cambridge Rindge & Latin.