Defense bends, doesn't break, to lift Pinkerton football past Londonderry in quarterfinals

LONDONDERRY - On a day when the offense's playbook shrunk more than half, the Pinkerton Academy football team's defense was more than up to the task.

While Londonderry had more yards, more plays and more time of possession, when the Astros' backs were against the wall, they made sure their season wasn't going to come to an end.

Jake MacInnis had a 72-yard interception return for a touchdown and made the drive-ending tackle on a defensive stand to help No. 4 Pinkerton to a 20-14 win over No. 1 Londonderry in the Division I quarterfinals on Saturday at Londonderry High School. The win, the first for a four seed since the NHIAA changed the D1 playoff format in 2015, sends the Astros to a semifinal matchup with No. 3 Salem on Nov. 10 at 1 p.m. in Salem.

Gannon Fast also had two rushing touchdowns for Pinkerton (8-2), the second of which came on a drive that featured an unsportsmanlike penalty against Londonderry, and proved to be the winning score for the Astros.

That score came with 8:06 left and the Lancers (8-2) answered with a 16-play drive, as they had a first-and-goal at the Pinkerton 9, but on fourth-and-goal, Evan Cormier's screen pass to Jeff Wiedenfeld was sniffed out by MacInnis for a 3-yard loss. The Astros ran out the remaining 1:23 to get the win.

"This was playoff football," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "We knew it would be tough. This (the field conditions) took away our outside (running) game, and a little bit of the passing game. If we weren’t able to run, we would have thrown the ball more, but we were able to run.

"It was really impressive, what Londonderry did running the ball in this muck. That quarterback option coming off the outside hurt us a lot. They did a good job with screen passes. They made us earn it. Give our defense credit, when it mattered, they pulled out the stop."

Londonderry outgained Pinkerton, 343-256, and ran 33 more plays, as the Lancers had four drives of 13 plays or more. Cormier finished with 102 yard rushing while completing 10 of 17 passing for 109 yards, throwing two touchdowns to Cole Keegan, and an interception. Wiedenfeld added 131 yards on 33 carries and Keegan finished with four catches for 39 yards and two scores.

"I thought we were good," Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzone said. "They didn’t really have an answer to our option game, but we couldn’t add a third element with pitching the ball because of the conditions. We let Evan make the read, and let the lead blocker block. That looked great and they didn’t have an answer for it. We liked our passing matchups.

"We gave it everything we had. There was one big penalty and one big turnover, and we happened to be on the wrong end of that. You can’t do that against them."

Fast finished with 90 yards on 17 carries to go with the two touchdowns while Nick Lombard had 83 yards on nine carries. Fast started the scoring with a 1-yard run with 9:46 left in the second quarter to make it 7-0.

Pinkerton had a chance for more, driving to the Londonderry 11-yard line, but decided to try a 27-yard field goal into the wind. The kick by Brandon Roy was blocked and the Lancers took over at their own 15 with four minutes left in the half.

The Lancers marched right down the field, using 14 plays to go 85 yards, as Cormier hit Keegan in the back of the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown and a 7-7 score at halftime.

"That was big, it gave us momentum," Lauzon said. "We owned them (on offense) in the third quarter, we just happened to have (the turnover). There was a turnover and we came up short there (at the end), but I just felt like we controlled everything in the second half."

After forcing a three-and-out, Londonderry started to drive again. On second and 9 at Pinkerton's 30, Cormier tried to hit Tyler Kaho with a short pass, but the ball hung up in the wind and MacInnis picked it off, returning it for the score and a 14-7 lead.

The Lancers responded with a 13-play, 80-yard drive, tying the game on Cormier's 14-yard touchdown pass to Keegan with 1:21 left in the third quarter.

Pinkerton answered with a 13-play drive of its own, going 79 yards to take the lead on Fast's second 1-yard scoring run. But a bad snap on the point-after left the Astros up by just six.

"That’s the first time this year that’s happened," O'Reilly said. "I thought for sure that was going to hurt us. It had that feel. It almost felt like we lost the game right there. Give our defense credit. (Assistant coaches) Bryon Murphy and Mike Gooden, they made the calls when they needed to."