Alvirne hangs on for one-point win over Timberlane

PLAISTOW – One team fumbled the ball 11 times. The other couldn’t pick up a first down on its final six possessions of the game.

One team returned a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown. The other was a plus-three in turnovers, scoring 14 points off those mistakes.

It only made sense then that the outcome of Friday night’s high school football game between Alvirne High School and Timberlane Regional would come down to the final play.

With 1.7 seconds left on the clock, Timberlane’s Gunnar Ericsson lined up for a 39-yard field goal that would have given his team the win. But Ericsson’s kick, which was executed in a driving rain, was well short of the uprights and Alvirne held on to beat the Owls 28-27 in Division II action.

The Broncos got the win despite gaining just 54 yards in the second half and going three-and-out on five of its final six possessions in the second half. The sixth possession ended in a third-down interception.

But a win is a win, no matter what it took to get there.

“It’s a great win for our young football team,” Alvirne coach Bobby Nimblett said. “We might have gotten worn down a little bit. We’re so young, sometimes you just don’t know how to finish games out and get a couple of first downs.”

Brandon Rule rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns while Josh Cohen connected with Tony Beaulieu for two touchdown receptions and the Broncos (1-2 in division, 2-2 overall) picked up their second win despite gaining 54 yards on offense after halftime.

Despite Alvirne’s inability to move the football it was Timberlane’s inability to hold on to it that allowed the Broncos to hold on to the win.

The Owls fumbled the ball 11 times, and lost four of them, two of which led to Alvirne touchdowns.

Josh David, who started the game under center before moving to tailback, led Timberlane with 108 yards rushing and two touchdowns, completed 2 of 4 passes for 26 yards and had two receptions for 31 yards. But his best play of the night came in the fourth quarter.

After the Owls forced Alvirne to punt, David, who had fumbled away a return earlier in the game, twice bobbled the kick from Beaulieu backwards. The junior recovered in time to scoop the ball up and race 83 yards for a touchdown that pulled Timberlane within one with 8:22 left in the game. Timberlane could have tied it, but Ryan McCarthy couldn’t handle the snap on the extra point and was tackled behind the line to keep it a 28-27 Alvirne lead.

“We knew he was a good runner,” Nimblett said of David. “We expected him to be at the tailback spot. I don’t know where their starting quarterback (Evan Bidgood) was tonight. They put (David) under center and he made good plays.”

The Broncos got on the board first thanks to the Owls’ first special teams miscue. Alvirne forced a punt on Timberlane’s first possession, but when Anthony Gillis went back to punt on fourth down, he dropped the snap and was tackled by Rule, giving the Broncos the ball at the 4-yard line. Rule needed just one play to bust up the middle for a touchdown, giving Alvirne a 7-0 lead.

It looked like Alvirne would be set up with great field position after Timberlane’s next possession, when Gillis again had trouble fielding a snap. Instead, the Broncos’ Britton Doyle knocked the ball back into the end zone and Timberlane recovered for a touchback.

“They gave us an opportunity and we didn’t necessarily capitalize on it,” Nimblett said. “We capitalized on some of the other ones. We’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities when they’re given to us.”

Rule made it 13-0 with a 37-yard touchdown run with 5:07 left before halftime, but Timberlane answered right back. McCarthy appeared to be on one knee when he fielded the ensuing kickoff at the 10-yard line, but the play continued and he raced down the left sideline, got a block at midfield and cut back across for a 90-yard kickoff return to make it 13-7.

A fumble by David gave Alvirne the ball at the Timberlane 11 with under a minute left in the half, and Cohen hit Beaulieu for a 6-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds to go before the break. Cohen’s pass to Andrew Stevens gave Alvirne a 21-7 lead.

Another lost fumble by the Owls set up Alvirne’s final touchdown, as Cohen and Beaulieu connected for a 16-yard pass play to put the Broncos up 28-7 with 7:44 to go in the third quarter.

“We know coming over here, strange things happen,” Nimblett said. “For a young football team, this is a great momentum builder. For them to get the win this week was real big for us.”