Despite Thanksgiving loss, Saugus football sees season of growth

By Dom Nicastro

The Saugus High School football team didn’t end the season the way it wanted to – a 27-6 loss at the hands of Thanksgiving Day rival Peabody on the road. Peabody ended up with five interceptions and captured its ninth consecutive Turkey Day victory over the Sachems. Saugus finished the season 5-6, Peabody 10-1.

On the surface, it appears to be a sour end to a losing season for Saugus. And that’s true. But digging deeper for the full context on the 2023 season for Saugus, you’d discover this was a foundational season of what can be good things to come.

Remember, this is a program that won one game between the past two seasons and about a handful over the last five. Starting 3-0 and finishing with an almost .500 record and five total wins? That’s progress.

Saugus exploded onto the scene this season by scoring 40, 28 and 27 points in three victories. The injury bug hit in big ways, sidelining leaders like quarterback Cam Preston and two-way standout Braden Faiella. The latter captain would return but Preston was lost for the season. Sophomore quarterback Jordan Rodriguez performed admirably in a tough situation, taking the snaps the rest of the way after Game 3. And Saugus flirted with a berth in the postseason with a 4-4 regular season mark but just missed.

As for the Peabody game on Thanksgiving, Saugus didn’t exactly lay down for the Tanners. Saugus’ Tommy DeSimone ran for 40 yards on 23 carries to finish his awesome 1,000-yard-plus season. But the Sachems couldn’t get much offense going on the morning. DeSimone had a 13-yard touchdown run in the third to break up the shutout.

“Taking advantage of turnovers – I felt during the season, we took advantage of teams’ mistakes and turned them into points,” DeSimone said. “We forced a couple turnovers Thursday; we just weren’t able to turn them into points.”

Faiella said the team got strong pushes from the offensive line and, in general, the defensive line stepped up, shutting Peabody down in the second half. Saugus also stopped a Peabody drive near the end of the first half. Saugus later recovered an onsides kick after it scored its touchdown but gave up the ball on the next possession.

Faiella is playing basketball in the winter then doing track in the spring; “those two sports are a very good time, and I’m looking forward to them,” he said.

DeSimone, another captain for the Sachems this year, is taking the winter off to train and lift weights. He will be running track in the spring and besides that will be in full training mode to prepare for his college football career.

“Rest time is over,” DeSimone said when asked the message to returning players coming back to play Saugus football. “If you aren’t playing a winter sport you should live in the weight room and get on guys to get in there with you. Do wrestling in the winter if you’re gonna play a sport and run track in the spring. The future is now.”

For his part, Faiella said returning players need to make sure they’re lifting and also getting faster. “I believe those two things do a lot on the football field,” he said. ‘I would also tell them to enjoy every moment in football because it flies by.”

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