Gloucester tops Saugus, 33–8; Sachems still eye postseason push

By Dom Nicastro

Saugus ran into one of the Northeastern Conference’s most complete teams Friday night, falling 33–8 to Gloucester at Newell Stadium on the road. The loss dropped the Sachems to 1–5 overall and 0–3 in the NEC South.

Gloucester (6–1) came out strong and never looked back. Senior running back Joe Allen scored twice, including a 65-yard run that helped the Fishermen build a 21-0 first-half lead. Jaylen Severino, Sean Frontiero, and Thomas Cribbs also found the end zone for Gloucester, which rebounded quickly from its first defeat of the season: to Swampscott, the Sachems’ next opponent.

Saugus coach Steve Cummings said Gloucester’s experience showed from the start.

“They’re big up front. They have backs that run that offense to a tee. I mean, that’s a solid program,” Cummings said. “You’re watching them on film, and you’re like, okay, that kid’s been a three-year starter, that kid… they have so many veteran guys. They’ve got a really big senior class. I know this is kind of the year they’ve had circled, so they’re as good as advertised.”

Cummings added that Gloucester’s success came from fundamentals rather than trick plays.

“They kind of give you a few formations, and they’ll make certain things look similar, but at the end of the day, they just execute,” he said. “We weren’t really able to get them behind the sticks at all on their first three drives. After that, our defense settled down a little bit, but at that point it’s 21-0.”

The Sachems had a chance to score early but couldn’t convert.

“We threw a pass on a fourth-and-one. I thought we had a pass-interference call. We didn’t get it,” Cummings said. “That’s kind of the way the game goes.”

  After the slow start, Saugus pieced together a long scoring drive that consumed nearly the entire fourth quarter. Running backs Chris Mazin and Pablo DeJesus carried the load, moving the ball steadily downfield before Mazin capped it with a touchdown and DeJesus added the two-point conversion.

“That drive started with two minutes to go in the third,” Cummings said. “Just Chris Mazin and Pablo DeJesus, just kind of off tackle both sides. Up front, they did a nice job. Earlier in the night, we had a couple drives that, again, kind of like the week before — a couple good plays in a row, and then all of a sudden you get a holding call. But the last drive, we had really good execution from the guys up front.”

The Sachems return home Friday, Oct. 24, for Senior Night against Swampscott, then close the regular season Thursday, Oct. 30, at Medford. With two games left, Saugus still has a mathematical path to qualify for the Division 5 state tournament based on strength of schedule. But they need to win their final two games to even have a shot.

“We still have an outside chance to kind of make some noise, especially with the strength of schedule that we have,” Cummings said. “Hey, we’ve got to show up and pull one together, and send the boys off on a good note on their Senior Night.”

Cummings said Swampscott (4-2 overall, 2-0 in the NEC) is trending up after a slow start.

“It’s funny — they didn’t get off to the greatest start, and everybody was kind of writing them off,” he said. “They graduated a lot of seniors off the previous year’s team… but they figured it out. Coach (Peter) Bush does a really good job over there. Their offense has really kicked into high gear. Defensively, they’ve got a lot of speed on the back end, and they’ve been forcing a lot of turnovers.”