Campbell outlasts Monadnock to win D3 football championship

DURHAM - The Campbell High School football team just had to keep the game close in the fourth quarter.

Despite being unable to move the ball for most of the first three quarters Saturday against Monadnock, the Cougars' defense did just enough to keep the Huskies in check.

And when Campbell took over on its own 32-yard line with 9:32 to play, down just two points, it was right where it wanted to be. The Cougars went 68 yards on seven plays, with Keegan Mills accounting for all of the yardage, including a 33-yard touchdown run that gave Campbell the lead for good.

Monadnock had a chance to go back ahead, but Tim Santaw's fourth-down pass to Joe Morrell fell incomplete with 46 seconds left to give Campbell a 12-8 win in the Division III championship game at the University of New Hampshire. It's the Cougars' second title in the last four years.

"We were hoping to be in it in the fourth," Campbell coach Greg Gush said. "That was our goal. If we were in this, we could take care of business. We spread the field and Keegan can also throw the ball. He’s a problem when he’s back there by himself. When he’s running the ball, we had some great perimeter blocking and he was able to find some creases."

With Monadnock (10-1) shutting down the running game out of the single wing formation, Campbell (11-0) switched to a spread with Mills taking the direct snap on the game-winning drive.

"Their defensive ends just kept crashing every single time," Mills said. "They made the play a lot. We realized when that happened, they’d either have to go for the sweep or try to tackle us going up the middle. It was just hard for them to read. I was either going to run up the middle or give it outside."

Mills ran for 54 yards and also found Carter Vedrani for a 19-yard gain on third-and-17 to keep the drive going. The sophomore finished with 76 yards rushing and two touchdowns and also completed 3 of 4 passes for 35 yards.

Chandler Matson led Monadnock with 125 yards and scored a two-point conversion following Tim Hart's 7-yard touchdown run, which gave the Huskies an 8-6 lead 2:52 to go in the first half. Hart finished with 69 yards rushing.

The Huskies held the edge in yards, 226-156, but had their last three possessions end on Campbell's end of the field, including the final drive. Monadnock started on its own 31 with 6:36 left in the game and converted two third downs and a fourth, setting up a first down at the Campbell 19-yard line with 1:02 left.

After Hart ran for 1 yard on first down, Santaw tried to throw to Hart twice, but Campbell's Ryan Yanuszewski broke up the first and the second was too high out of bounds.

Facing fourth-and-9 with 51 seconds left, Santaw tried to connect with Morrell down the left sideline, but the throw sailed out of the end zone.

"We knew they’d end up throwing," Gush said. "For us, we worked a lot on that. They don’t show a lot of that stuff, but we know they’re very capable. They’re a very capable team. The quarterback can throw and they do a good job."

Campbell got the first break of the day, as Hart fumbled late in the first quarter and Vedrani recovered to give the Cougars the ball at the Monadnock 32.

But six plays later, Mills pass to Vedrani was picked off by Santaw, who returned it to the Huskies 34, but got stood up and had the ball knocked out by Leo Carten. Mills was there to fall on the loose ball and give the Cougars a first down at the Monadnock 34.

Seven plays later, on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line, Mills pounded his way into the end zone. Campbell went for two, but Mills was stopped short to keep it 6-0 with 9:07 left in the first half.

Monadnock answered with a 14-play, 65-yard drive that ended with Hart's touchdown run. Matson was able to power his way in for the conversion to give the Huskies an 8-6 lead they'd hold until the fourth quarter.

"This season, it was great," Mills said. "Coming into this game, we wanted to play a whole football game. We just want to have a great football game and end up winning in the end."