WOBURN — Truth be told, Saturday’s odds were against Swampscott in every way. From home-field advantage to seeding, and to overall records, Stoneham just had to be the favorite.

But don’t tell that to the No. 7 Big Blue, who advanced to the Division 6 semifinals with a 13-7 triumph against two-seeded Stoneham.

Just when coach Peter Bush’s side needed one most, sophomore quarterback John von Barta and Jay Domelowicz connected on a 13-yard touchdown with six seconds remaining.

Ballgame.

“We had 11 seconds left,” said Bush, in his second season helming Swampscott’s program. “They were coming out in certain sets on defense in the last few plays, so we had a feeling they were going to be in some type of man coverage. We wanted to get John von Barta out of the pocket a little bit and… if he didn’t have an option, he could throw it away or run, but he was able to find Jay Domelowicz for the game-winner.”

Now, it’s on to No. 3 Fairhaven (9-1) in the semifinals. That one is set for Saturday at Milford High with kickoff slated for 4 p.m.

“It’s unfinished business,” said Bush, whose team sports an 8-2 record. “I think these guys have worked tremendously hard since last year – throughout the winter and offseason – so the expectation is to compete week in and week out and that’s what we have done. Obviously, we haven’t been perfect all year, but we are going to go into this week just like we have the previous 10 weeks. We are going to put our kids in position to be successful and we are playing good football right now, so I think we should feel confident, but at the same time, it’s a lot of unfinished business.”

Saturday’s showdown was defensive, with both teams being forced to punt early. In a scoreless first quarter, a notable highlight was when the Big Blue delivered a fourth-down stop as Brian Giarlo maneuvered his way into Stoneham’s backfield.

Things were still scoreless at halftime. Neither offense could get cooking, while Swampscott’s unit recorded just 17 yards from scrimmage. Stoneham, on the other hand, found some success in the ground game with 105 first-half rushing yards.

But Swampscott’s offense finally started to click, which led to a Barta 18-yard touchdown pass to Liam Keaney. Just like that, it was 6-0 in favor of the Big Blue with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Swampscott maintained its cushion going into the fourth quarter, but the Spartans were on the attack. With three minutes to go – in someone’s season – Logan Tran punched one in from 4 yards out to give Stoneham a 7-6 lead.

Discipline hurt the hosts, however. Two pass interference penalties against Stoneham helped Swampscott move the chains with two minutes remaining.

Then, just outside of the 10-yard line, came the play that kept Swampscott’s season alive.

“If you look at the game, from top to bottom, I think we had a great gameplan going in and a point-of-emphasis on holding the line and tackling really, really well,” Bush said. “On offense, we made the plays that we had to. I think we struggled to get into a rhythm on offense, but obviously, when it mattered, we were able to score and get great efforts from our special teams. Our punt team was really great as far as flipping the field and making sure they didn’t have a short field to work with. Overall, all three phases played really, really well.”

Owen Finn is a student at Endicott College studying journalism