Nashua North's Jahmar Gathright walks off the field as Winnacunnet players celebrate after Friday's game.
NASHUA – It’s hard to win football games going scoreless for an entire half.
The Winnacunnet High School football team avoided its own goose egg by getting on the board late in the first half, and the Warriors didn’t allow a point in the second half, as they rallied from a 21-0 deficit to defeat Nashua North 27-21 in overtime Friday at Stellos Stadium.
The Titans led by three touchdowns in the first half, but the Warriors turned an interception into a score at the end of the second quarter and then went on a long drive to open the third – aided by a roughing-the-kicker penalty on the Titans – to make it a 21-14 game.
Penalties, dropped passes and poor tackling doomed North in the second half, as the closest the Titans came to the end zone was on their sole possession of overtime, which by rule started at the Winnacunnet 10-yard line.
“In my opinion, we gave them two touchdowns, and to their credit, they shut us out in the second half,” North coach Jason Robie said. “When you can do that to our offense … we need to look at the film and see where we were tipping our hat or how they were coming at us.”
Brandon Karkhanis threw for 203 yards and a touchdown, but completed just 13 of 28 passes, while Jahmar Gathright had 108 yards of offense. Andre Williams (94 total yards) and Mark Lavine each had a touchdown run, while Anton Marinchik had a 21-yard scoring catch-and-run for North.
North's Anton Marinchik gets away from Winnacunnet's Brent Edmunds.
Although the Titans piled up 323 yards on offense, only 93 of those came in the second half, when drives were repeatedly stalled by a penalty, a dropped pass or both.
“We let them in because we did some things that are uncharacteristic of us,” Robie said. “We had some drops, we had some penalties. We didn’t tackle well. We had them bottled up and their kids kept churning out yards.”
Winnacunnet ran for 249 yards, with 183 of those in the second half. Quarterback Steve Cronan led the way with 85 yards on the ground while Benjamin Fee (68 yards, touchdown), Brett Taylor (72) and Michael Trainor (23, two scores) got in the mix as well.
The Warriors were able to pick up those yards on the ground because coach Ron Auffant decided to stick with the game plan, and he was able to do that thanks to Trainor’s touchdown before halftime.
“The key play was that turnover at the end of the half because 21-0 and 21-7 (at halftime) is a big difference,” Auffant said. “Who knows, I could have got out of the game plan and spread it out and thrown the ball.”
Up 21-0, Williams intercepted a Cronan pass inside North’s 10-yard line; a personal foul on the Titans moved the ball inside the 5.
After Gathright ran for no gain on first down, Karkhanis was intercepted by Winnacunnet’s Michael Kean, giving the Warriors the ball on the 6. Two plays later, Trainor went in from 5 yards out with 1:19 left in the half.
“That’s on me,” Robie said. “We had a 21-0 lead and we’ve gotta get out of the half there.”
The Warriors got the ball to start the second half, and after two tackles for loss by North’s Joel Pacheco, Winnacunnet lined up to punt on fourth-and-16. The snap to Fee was off the mark, but he was able to regroup and got the kick off.
But North was called for roughing Fee and Winnacunnet got the ball back on the Titans’ 27. Four plays later, Trainor went in from 1 yard out to make it a 21-14 game.
Winnacunnet then went on a nine-play, 55-yard drive on its next possession to tie the game at 21 with 2:09 left in the third quarter.
North got the ball first in overtime, but Lavine missed a 25-yard field goal attempt wide left. Needing a score to win, Cronan scampered into the end zone from 4 yards out to give the Warriors the win.
“We had an opportunity and we let it slip out of our hands,” Robie said. “That’s not characteristic of a team of veterans. They scored on a broken play at the end and our inability to tackle cost us.”
The Titans open the Division I portion of their schedule on Sept. 10 when they travel to Londonderry, while the Warriors head to Spaulding to start Division II play.