Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, OCTOBEr 10, 2025 Winthrop tops Saugus, 40-6; Sachems now head to Salem S By Dom Nicastro augus suffered a difficult night at home against Winthrop Thursday, falling in Northeastern Conference football action by a 40-6 margin. For much of the contest, Winthrop controlled the tempo and kept Saugus off balance. Saugus finally got on the board with about five minutes left, when Eli Fialho connected with Ryan Shea on a 50-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion attempt failed, and that would be the lone score for the Sachems. Looking back, Saugus football has been chasing stability. Over the last several seasons, the team has struggled to break through in the Northeastern Conference and has often been in the process of building — 2024 ended with a 3–8 record. In 2023, the Sachems went 5–6, a mark that showed flashes of promise Members of the 2025 Saugus Football cheerleaders (in no particular order) are Addy Spinney, Alesha Bien-Aime, Alexis Mitchell, Allison Figueroa, Alyssa Mikalix, Amani Guenanou, Amy Buzi, Ana Gutierrez, Audrina Giglio, Ava Pina, Brandi Murray, Camila DiFraia, Izzy Dedo, Jenna Pabon, Kat Byrd, Kieiry Camilo Grullon, Lani Guadalupe Perez, Leeomi Pagan, Lexi McQuade, Madison Carrillo, Marla Youance, Maya Sufran, Mikaela Trombella, Natalia Norkum, Raylin Rogers, Maya Sufran, Mikaela Trombella, Savanna Dalton, Soraya Mathieu, Stephanie Perez and Yaneli Flores. (Advocate photo by Emily Harney) amid inconsistency. Winthrop got control of the line of scrimmage and forced Saugus into negative or stalled situations, and the Sachems had limited answers. On defense, Saugus has Sachems’ quarterback Eli Fialho is shown making a pass during last Thursday’s action. in the past shown flashes of bend-but-not-break resilience — particularly early in seasons before fatigue or depth issues set in. But as senior captain Jordan Rodriguez noted following this loss, past strengths gave way this game to misalignment and bursts allowed by Winthrop. That echoes other games from recent years in which late-game wear, substitutions or defensive fatigue contributed to margin growth against Saugus. Rodriguez said the team has the ability to move the ball but is looking for more consistency to break through and get some big gains. “Our running back Chris Mazin runs hard and downhill — we just need a little more movement up front and we will have so many more big gains,” Rodriguez said. “It always seems that we are always one block away from a big gain or even a touchdown. We need to improve on this because it hurts our drive when on first down we get no gain or even a loss of yards. Past couple weeks we have been playing behind the sticks, and that’s hurts an offense.” He also reflected on the defense’s strain under volume. “A strength for us in the first three weeks was our defense — we played good, hard defense up until Winthrop when things started to fall apart on misalignment and things like that,” he said.“ … Our defense has been strong even though we have been letting up points, but we have been on the field for defense about double the amount of plays we have had on offense, so when that happens the team is bound to let up some points.” Rodriguez also parsed what broke down on Winthrop’s side, saying some fundamentals got lost and Winthrop took advantage. “Some of the challenges that we faced during Winthrop is that we didn’t line up correctly most of the game,” he said. “We had gaps open that shouldn’t have been. We also didn’t get to the point of attack quick enough. We knew they like to bring a lot of blockers to the play side, and we needed to fill better, and we just didn’t do that well enough.” On preparing for what’s next, Rodriguez said the focus is on patching up the inconsistencies. “The focus during practice this week is to get our heads right and continue to work on what we need to fix and get ready for another NEC battle against Salem,” he said. “Salem, like any other team in the NEC, they are a competitor. They have a good running back in the backfield that runs well and couple of good receivers that just like to find open space. They also run a defense that we haven’t played against this year, so we have to get ready for that. Looking forward to seeing what we can do against them this Friday.” Saugus will travel to face SaRyan Moreira carries the ball upfield for some yardage for the Sachems. Sachem defenders Caua Martins and Nathan Santos gangup on a Viking ball carrier. lem Friday, Oct. 10, with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Salem enters with a 2–3 record, having just fallen 33–0 to Gloucester.
11 Publizr Home