North Shore Is Super Bowl Championship Central: Patch Sunday

MARBLEHEAD, MA —One week the Marblehead and Swampscott football players were pouring their hearts into a tremendous Thanksgiving battle that came down to the final seconds.

A week later, they were both state champions.

Six days after coming up just short in a 31-28 loss to the Magicians, the Big Blue responded in the most impressive fashion imaginable with a 14-7 triumph against North Reading in the Division 5 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium Wednesday night.

About 18 hours later, Marblehead took the field for its Division 3 Super Bowl against North Attleboro and came out on top in arguably the most thrilling game of the championship game slate in a 35-28 victory.

Read up on those two games, plus anything else you may have missed on the North Shore this past week, in this edition of Patch Sunday.

Marblehead Football Team Celebrates Super Bowl Title

Connor Cronin repeatedly raised his hands in the air and soaked in the surging energy of the Marblehead High crowd that he had so much a part of creating in the final minutes of Thursday afternoon's Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium.

A 72-yard touchdown catch from Josh Robertson with five seconds left in the first half, an 83-yard TD catch-and-run from Robertson when it seemed history was slipping away from the Magicians late in the fourth quarter, and a game-clinching interception with 73 seconds left on the clock all helped add up to a 35-28 victory and the first Super Bowl title in program history.

Swampscott High Football Team Keeps Title In Town

Two title shots two years apart brought out a similarly spectacular defensive showing from the Swampscott High football team on the Gillette Stadium turf.Swampscott dominated Amherst Pelham, 21-0, for the program's third title at Gillette in 2019, but because of the coronavirus pandemic had to wait two years to defend its crown.

The second-seeded Big Blue made the most of that chance Wednesday night with a 14-7 triumph against top-seeded North Reading for the fourth title in school history.

North Shore Horses On The Loose On Route 1

Anyone who thought they saw three horses rambling down Route 1 in Topsfield early Thursday morning might not have been seeing things after all.

Salem Rallies Around Coronavirus-Stricken DeCelle Family

The community is rallying around a Salem family that the coronavirus has taken a heavy toll on in recent weeks.

Danvers Schools Strengthens Anti-Defamation League Partnership

Danvers Public Schools has strengthened its partnership with the Anti-Defamation League and launched a series of Climate, Culture & Transparency sessions with high school and middle school parents in response to a series of racist, antisemitic and homophobic acts in the schools — and throughout the town — in recent years.

Salem Shooting Victim's Protective Order Not Supported In NH Law

A New Hampshire Judicial Review Committee determined that while a Salem shooting victim suffered "intimate partner violence" and was the recipient of recent harassment and verbal abuse, the judge who denied her a protective order a month before her Nov. 16 attack was justified in doing so because the threats did not rise to what the committee called the state's "restrictive" standard of a "credible present threat."

Marblehead Police Chief Offers Tips To Thwart Porch Pirates

With more and more people ordering holiday gifts online and having them delivered has come a dramatic increase in package thefts in recent years.

Essex County Sheriff Issues Extensive Coronavirus Vaccine Order

All employees, vendors and volunteers with the Essex County Sheriff's Department will need to provide proof of a coronavirus vaccination as of Jan. 4, 2022, as part of a new order from Sheriff Kevin F. Coppinger.

Man Charged In Salem Crash Found With Fentanyl In Cell: Police

A man charged with operating under the influence of drugs in a Balcomb Street crash early Sunday morning is now also facing fentanyl charges after a bag of the drug was later found strewn across the floor of his jail cell, Salem police said.

Marblehead Stolen Mail Included Real Estate Tax, Utility Payments

Marblehead residents who placed check payments into the mailbox in front of the municipal office building on Widger Road are advised to cancel those checks and monitor their accounts after police said a bag of mail was stolen from that box sometime Wednesday or Thursday.

Salem Schools To Revisit Student Vaccine Mandate Amid Surge

Salem Public Schools may soon consider a vaccination mandate for all students amid a statewide rise in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)