Bow football stuns Windham with last-second touchdown

WINDHAM - The Bow and Windham high school football teams played extremely close to one another and fought until the very last whistle of Saturday's Division II quarterfinal.

But it was Matt Harkins' touchdown pass to Mark Borak with seconds remaining that gave No. 8 Bow a stunning 20-15 win over top-seeded Windham.

The game began with a completely deadlocked first quarter. Each team with multiple offensive series, only to get shut down by the opposing team’s defense. In fact, it wasn’t until late in the second quarter that saw a team edge ahead of the other.

Windham’s Bobby Dicicco, with four minutes remaining in the first half, made an incredible leaping grab to intercept a Harkins pass. This outstanding individual effort set the Jaguar offense up with excellent field position to put the first points of the game on the board.

But unfortunately for the Jaguars, their offense was still unable to materialize much of a drive when Bow’s Matt Nicholls ripped directly through the offensive line to dump Windham’s Cody Potter for the sack. The loss of yards forced the Jaguars to punt back to the Falcons with three minutes remaining in the half.

Thirty seconds later, however, the Falcons (7-2) broke through on the legs of senior running back Jack Corriveau, who was able to run untouched for a 77-yard touchdown run to give Bow the late 7-0 lead over the Jaguars. Windham (8-1) would have a chance of its own to draw level with the Falcons, only to fall just short as Potter’s deep pass over the middle was intercepted by Bow defensive back Corey Gott.

Heading into the half with seemingly all of the momentum, the Falcons looked to continue their stingy defense, and run-first offense into the second half, hoping to carve out as much time from the clock as they could to secure the victory.

Windham, however, was able to get an incredibly quick, tough, and game-changing drive to open the third quarter. Starting at their own 35-yard line, the Jaguars marched all the way down the field to cap off their first touchdown drive with a Tommy Emrick 1-yard run. The score brought the game level at 7-7 with seven minutes remaining in the third .

Bow answered an even longer drive (over five minutes), as the Falcons were able to chew their way through not only the game clock, but also the Jaguar defense, capping off an impressive drive with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Harkins to Falcons receiver Ben Kimball. The score put the Falcons up 14-7 with under three minutes to play in the third.

As if the scoreboard wasn’t lighting up quickly enough already, Royce Belsky, of Windham, gashed the Falcon defense for a massive 50-yard touchdown run to bring the game level once again. Only this time, seemingly trying to push themselves ahead in what was shaping up to be a tough drawn battle, the Jaguars converted on a two-point attempt to take the 15-14 lead into the fourth .

Late in the fourth quarter, Bow faced a fourth-and-17 and was set to punt, but a personal foul was called against the Jaguar special teams unit, awarding an automatic first down to the Bow offense. The penalty gave life to what looked to be a down-and-out drive by the Falcons. Fortunately enough for the Jaguars, their defense was still able to hold off the counter-attack, forcing the Bow punt.

The ball would end of changing sides a few more times before the game would end, ultimately ending up in the hands of the Falcons with just 1:21 remaining in the game. On third-and-6, Harkins was able to find Steven Guerrette open across the middle of the field for a gain of 35 yards, taking the ball deep into Jaguar territory.

On the next play, Harkins hit Borak in the corner of the end zone to give the Falcons the 20-15 lead with just 38 seconds remaining. The touchdown pass sucked the wind right out of the Windham faithful, and ultimately left the field mostly silent, the exception being the rowdy visitor’s area.

Windham would piece together a great drive of its own, only to have the final pass of the game batted down to seal the come from behind victory for Bow.