WOBURN — It was not the greatest win in the distinguished history of the Swampscott High School football program. But it certainly was one of its most dramatic.
Sophomore quarterback John von Barta threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jay Domelowicz with six seconds remaining at Connolly Memorial Stadium Saturday night, allowing the Big Blue to stun second seeded Stoneham, 13-7, in a Division 6 playoff quarterfinal.
Helped greatly by three pass interference calls against Stoneham on their final offensive drive, the Big Blue hit paydirt on third down when von Barta rolled to his right, looked off his first read, Nakeylen Davis (running a flat route) and instead turned to Domelowicz running a corner route. He caught the ball and managed to keep his right foot inbounds; the game officials, after briefly conferring, confirmed the touchdown.
“It’s the greatest moment of my life right now,” said the 6-foot-2, 165-pound Domelowicz.
“Their safety was playing deep, so I cut it off kind of shallow, right at the front pylon, and John made a great throw,” he continued. “I know high school you only need one foot in, so I made sure to get my right one in. When the refs got together I was on my toes a bit, saying ‘Please just hold up that hand signaling touchdown”, and fortunately they did — and my whole team came rushing towards me.”
“I think that’s how we scripted it out,” joked Swampscott head coach Peter Bush.
The 15-year-old von Barta said he looked off Davis and skipped over to Domelowicz, “and he was right there. I knew he was in; I just wanted to make sure the refs saw it, too.”
Swampscott (8-2), the No. 7 seed in Division 6, now advances to take on third seeded Fairhaven (9-1) in Friday’s state semifinals.
Time and time again, Swampscott’s defense rose up to stop Stoneham’s double tight, Double Wing-T offense from grinding them down. The Spartans, a program with loads of postseason experience (and success), tend to wear their foes down before ripping off a big run. On this night, they only had three carries that went for over 10 yards, the longest of those being just 13.
The Big Blue focused on shutting down star back Sean Kilty and held him well below his season average, allowing 86 yards on 22 carries. Captain Liam Keaney was a monster at inside linebacker, making stops all over. Brian Giarla, Vaughn Hazell, Henry Buettler, Joe Marino, captain Timmy Sheehan, Sam Morse and Davis were others who had multiple tackles, and Swampscott stopped the Spartans on fourth down twice.
“That was something we emphasized all week,” said Bush. “We knew it was going to come down to the old thing, blocking and tackling, and trying not to have any bad penalties.”
Conversely, the Spartan defenders held the Big Blue in check for most of the night, forcing six punts and limiting the visitors to 49 yards on 24 carries.
Scoreless at halftime, the Northeastern Conference Lynch champions broke through in the third quarter. von Barta moved his squad downfield before running a play fake, deking the Spartan defense into thinking he had handed the ball off. Instead, he took two steps back and found a wide open Keaney over the middle for an 18-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
“Rather than just throwing when we needed do like in the first half, we started throwing on 1st-and-10, 2nd-and-5 in the second half and it really worked,” said von Barta, one of several Swampscott football players who also helped the school’s boys lacrosse team to the Final Four back in the spring.
Stoneham ran seven plays, all on the ground, in the fourth quarter for the go-ahead points with just 3:21 remaining. Logan Tran scampered around left end from four yards out and the point after was good, giving the Spartans a one-point lead.
With all three of their time outs left, the Big Blue got back to work. After an 11-yard pass to Beuttler, three straight incompletions saw them facing 4th-and-10 at their own 48. The pass attempt fell incomplete but Stoneham was whistled for pass interference, keeping the drive alive.
On the very next play the Spartans were again flagged for another 15-yard PI, putting the ball at the hosts’ 23. Three plays netted Swampscott five yards, and while they thought about kicking a field goal they instead threw for the end zone … where the Spartans saw a third pass interference penalty called against them.
On 3rd-and-goal with 12 seconds left, the coaching staff again considered a Marino field goal try before deciding to run at least one more play, leading to the von Barta-to-Domelowicz dramatic score.
“It’s a hell of a time to be a Swampscott football player right now,” the 18-year-old Domelowicz said with a big grin.