D1 Football Final Notebook: Defense stepped up for Londonderry when it needed it

There was a very clear tempo that the first half of Saturday's Division I football championship was being played.

The Winnacunnet High School team took the opening kickoff, held the ball for almost nine minutes and ran 17 plays before finding paydirt on a 1-yard touchdown run from quarterback Kyle Tilley.

By the time Londonderry saw the ball, there was less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter and the Lancers were already down a score. When they turned the ball over on downs inside the Warriors' 10-yard line, Winnacunnet was in position for another long drive.

That's what the Warriors did, keeping the ball for another 8:23 and giving them more than 17 minutes of possession in the 24-minute half. Winnacunnet took that 7-0 lead into halftime, having outgained Londonderry 121-58 while running almost twice as many plays.

"I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t frustration, but we definitely weren’t turning on each other," Londonderry senior Riley Boles said. "We’ve been down before at half, we knew what adjustments we needed to make. Our coaches did a great job of doing that and we had to listen to them."

The Lancers knew what they had to do differently on defense and what they had to start trying on offense.

"Eliminate the inside run, make them play more sideways," Boles said. "That’s where our advantages play in. It’s football, you’ve got to play harder than the other team."

The Lancers looked to do some of the same stuff when they had the ball, focusing on getting the ball on the perimeter.

"We were going to go into the game throwing it more than we normally do," Londonderry junior Andrew Kullman said. "We talked about how we needed to throw the ball if we wanted to come back in the game. We needed to throw in front and get it in stride to score."

Kullman helped the Lancers do that, catching two touchdown passes as Londonderry scored 21 points in the third quarter on the way to a 24-14 win and its second championship in three seasons.

Touchdown saver

The biggest defensive play of the game didn't look like it at the moment it happened.

After Londonderry had taken a 21-14 with 1:09 left in the third quarter, Winnacunnet started the ensuing drive at its own 17. On the second play, Kyle Tilley connected with Dom Gould on a pass in the left flat.

The sideline opened up for Gould, who used his speed to get down field in a hurry. It looked like the Warriors senior receiver was going to tie the game, but Londonderry's Dylan Wrisley made a diving attempt and tripped up Gould at the Lancers' 13-yard line to end the third quarter.

Three plays later, Winnacunnet faced a third-and-5 when Tilley tried to pitch the ball to Frank Brown, but the toss was high and behind the back. It fell to the turf, where Londonderry's Anthony Salcito recovered.

"It’s a game of inches," Winnacunnet coach Ryan Francoeur said. "Getting hit, pitching with your left hand, it’s a little high and back, we would have had to make a really athletic play and it was close. If that had been three inches lower, (Brown) is walking in I think."

Londonderry capitalized on the turnover by going on a 10-play drive that took 5:27 off the clock and ended with Wrisley's 32-yard field goal to make it a 10-point game.

"I think that was a big play," Londonderry quarterback Drew Heenan said of the fumble recovery. "We came down, moved the ball, got three points and made it a two-score game."

Pair of takeaways

Salcito also came up with an interception of Tilley at the end of the first half, although he may have regretted it in the moments after it happened.

Winnacunnet had a fourth-and-6 at the Londonderry 26-yard line in the final minute of the second quarter and Tilley threw the ball toward the end zone, trying to hit Tate Goucher to put the Warriors up by two scores.

The pass was short of the goal line and Salcito leaped and made a great grab to haul in the pick, but his momentum took him back inside the 1-yard line. Instead of a turnover on downs and the ball at its 26, the Lancers took over in the shadow of their goalposts with 24.4 seconds remaining in the half.

Final nail

Winnacunnet got the ball back with 4:55 remaining and with all of its timeouts, needing two scores. The Warriors converted two third downs to get near midfield, and on fourth-and-11, Tilley hit Gould for a 19-yard gain that gave them a first down at Londonderry's 39.

After throwing incomplete, Tilley dropped back on second down and never saw Boles blitzing from his left. The senior hit Tilley and knocked the ball free, with Ryan Pemberton recovering for the Lancers with 2:31 left.

"I came off the edge and I think they were rolling to the right, so they didn’t really have a plan for backside pressure," Boles said. "The quarterback kind of pump-faked and didn’t see me. Next thing you know, the ball is out. Our defense thrives on big plays and turnovers."

It was no surprise to Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon that Boles was the one to make a big play when the defense needed one.

"Doesn’t surprise me one bit," the coach said. "That’s him. He’s come up with big plays for three years."

For Boles, one of the few seniors who played a big role in the Lancers' title in 2019, it was a great way to cap his high school career.

"I’m just trying to close that gap as quick as possible," he said. "I know a sack would be huge and the fumble just made it two times better. The first one was obviously special, but this is senior year, more my year."