Vikings, minus Cappuccio, fall to Swampscott, 38-15

By Cary Shuman

The Winthrop High School football team played Swampscott tough for a half, but the Big Blue offense took command after the break and raced away to a 38-15 victory at Miller Field.

Winthrop played the game without its All-Scholastic running back, Nick Cappuccio, who has been sidelined by an ankle injury.

Swampscott-Winthrop was a 6-0 game late in the first half when the Vikings had an opportunity to score the tying touchdown at the Big Blue 1-yard line, but Swampscott forced a fumble and recovered the football on the penultimate play of the half.

Swampscott scored two more touchdowns in the third quarter before the Vikings would get on the scoreboard on a terrific 34-yard pass from quarterback Matt Noonan to Seth Sacco for a touchdown. Domenic Spinale booted the PAT to close the margin to 18-7.

The Big Blue and their excellent sophomore quarterback, Jon Von Barta, responded quickly with a middle screen pass that receiver Joe Marino turned into a 65-yard touchdown.

Sean Dolen’s dazzling 55-yard run, in which he was denied a touchdown by a shoestring tackle, set up Winthrop’s second score, a one-yard plunge by Noonan. Sacco’s reception of a Noonan pass resulted in the two-point conversion.

Second half was the difference

Winthrop head coach Jon Cadigan said a combination of turnovers and penalties gave Swampscott an advantage.

“I told the team all week when you play good teams like Swampscott, they’re not going to beat themselves, and they certainly didn’t,” said Cadigan. “Honestly, I didn’t recognize the [Winthrop] team that went out there in the second half because we did an excellent job in the first half of defending Swampscott and taking away things in its offense. We just missed tackles in the second half that we didn’t miss in the first half and the game got away from us. I did not see that coming in the second half. It’s disappointing, because I didn’t think it would be a 23-point [deficit] game. I thought it would be a one-score game.”

Dolen the Vikings’ leading rusher

Sean Dolen was Winthrop’s top ground-gainer with seven carries for 79 yards.

“Sean runs the football very hard,” said Coach Cadigan. “He’s a one-cut and square up. On his 55-yard run, he broke two tackles and went right down the sidelines. Sean played well offensively.”

Seth Sacco (13 carries, 65 yards) and Will Murphy (11 carries, 26 yards) were 2-3 on the rushing charts. Sacco and Murphy each had two pass receptions as well. Sean Dolen (10 yards) and Charlie Ferrara (6 yards) each had one pass reception.

Matt Noonan was 6-of-13 for 98 yards passing, with one touchdown pass and one 2-point conversion pass.

“Matt had a couple of nice throws and had a touchdown pass,” said Cadigan.

Grein earns top
defender award

Defensive end/nosetackle Gabe Grein was the recipient of the Vikings’ Black Shirt defensive player of the game award. Grein made four tackles and had one quarterback sack and one fumble recovery.

Matt Reardon (5 tackles, one sack, two tackles for a loss) and Phil Boncore (7 tackles) also sparked Winthrop’s defense in holding Swampscott to one touchdown in the first half.

 The ‘start of the playoffs’

Coach Cadigan is rightfully calling the game against Salem High (Friday at Bertram Field) the “start of the playoffs” because a loss in the final two games (the Vikings play Gloucester next week) would likely keep Winthrop out of the playoffs.

“If you win games, you’ll be in the playoffs –  if you don’t, you won’t, so you might as well consider these next two games as playoff games,” Cadigan told his team. “I have no doubt that we’ll respond and play well Friday night.”

Cadigan said he would like to play Swampscott again in the playoffs “if it works out that way.”