Broncos looking for first win against Pythons

It doesn’t get much tougher than what the Alvirne High School football team went through a week ago.

The Broncos went into last week’s game against Winnacunnet without starting quarterback Pat Reidy and running back Jonathan Baldwin. Against any team, it would have been a rough night for Alvirne (0-5 in Division II, 0-6 overall); against the Warriors it was downright brutal as the Broncos fell 52-15.

The good news for Alvirne? Running back Sean Sipsey returned to action a week ago after missing a few games. And after sitting out a game, Baldwin is expected to be back for Saturday’s non-division game against Pelham. The teams kick off at noon in Hudson.

“To lose guys who have varsity experience really hurt us because now we have a lot more sophomores playing than we really wanted to,” Alvirne coach Bobby Nimblett said. “Sipsey will probably be 100 percent this week. He still has a little limp to him, but I think this will be the week he’s back to normal. We expect Baldwin to be back this game. Reidy we’re waiting on hopefully for next week.”

The loss of Reidy hurts as much on defense, where the senior has filled in nicely this season.

Taking over at quarterback last week was sophomore Josh Cohen, who impressed the coaches with some of his passes against the Warriors.

“He actually made three or four real nice throws that were dropped,” Nimblett said. “Our running backs had a tough night catching the football. He hit them right between the numbers and they dropped them.

“As a sophomore, he battled and did very well. He got the ball out of his hand and controlled the offense. Real good experience. He gets to play again this week.”

This week might be Alvirne’s best chance to get one in the win column this season. Pelham comes into the game coming off its best game of the season, a 13-6 loss to Goffstown that dropped the Pythons to 0-5 in Division III.

Pelham is in its first season in Division III after jumping up from Division V, and it’s been a tough year for the Pythons. They started the season by not scoring a point in their first two games, and for the year, they’ve been outscored 215-20.

“They had some injuries in the beginning of the year and they’re getting some of those guys back,” Nimblett said. “We saw them (last week) and they played well against Goffstown. They had some good opportunities and then made a couple of mistakes. Kind of like how we’re making mistakes. We get some things going and we throw a pick or a fumble. They did the same thing, kind of shot themselves in the foot a few times.”

Alvirne’s winless season might work in its favor this week, as Nimblett doesn’t expect his team to look past the Pythons because the Broncos have yet to win a game themselves.

“With us, not having a win, it’s easy to keep them focused on trying to get that first win and try to get some momentum going,” Nimblett said. “I wish that we could have got a win early, because I think you would have saw a different football team if we could have got a win early. Losing is kind of contagious. We still have some good shots to battle some people and get a few wins to carry us into next season.”