Defense holds up as Goffstown football knocks off Bishop Guertin

NASHUA - It took about a half of Saturday night's game for the offense to get going for the Goffstown High School football team.

Fortunately for the Grizzlies, the defense and special teams were up to the task.

Bishop Guertin had the ball at Goffstown's 30-yard line or deeper five times in the first 24 minutes, but the Grizzlies kept the Cardinals off the scoreboard. The offense woke up enough in the third quarter to give Goffstown a 35-20 win over Bishop Guertin in a Division I game at Stellos Stadium.

Goffstown forced two turnovers in the first half, blocked a field goal and a punt and overcame the absence of a couple of starters, including quarterback Charlie Keith, who hurt his right knee in last week's win over Nashua South.

"We played hard overall, but not without mistakes," Goffstown coach Justin Hufft said. "A lot of that was due to BG. They’re really coming on and a little more time passes here, look out. They had a definite plan, they knew what we were doing. They were all over us, we couldn’t really block them, especially in the first half.

"Our defense played well early on, but certainly it was a struggle. We had a good third quarter and were finally able to get separation, but even then, BG battled back. We came in banged up, without a couple of our best players, but did what we had to to win the game."

Jarrett Henault made his first start at quarterback for Goffstown (5-3) and had 36 yard rushing and two touchdowns while completing 5 of 11 passes for 78 yards and a score. The touchdown pass was a 25-yard toss to Sean Leahy on the first drive of the game that gave the Grizzlies a lead they wouldn't give up all night.

Josh Juneau rushed for 106 of his game-high 137 yards in the second half, and the senior back also had two touchdowns, while Jack Stinnett added 54 yards on the ground.

Bishop Guertin (1-7) got a big night from quarterback Hayden Moses, who was 14 of 35 passing for 165 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. The junior also ran for 57 yards, while Austin Hiscoe had six catches for 76 yards and a score. Kyle Baker and Joey Lupo also each had a touchdown catch, but all three scores came in the second half after Goffstown had taken a 28-0 lead.

"We’ve value that and competing until the end of the game," Bishop Guertin coach John Trisciani said. "It’s good if you can at least fight for four quarters. It’s tough. I don’t walk out of here feeling real good about it. There’s a few kids that, no matter what happens, they gave real high effort, and I think we have some guys who need to look at those kids as how to go about it and use them as examples."

After Goffstown scored on the opening drive, the Cardinals marched down the field, with Moses carrying the ball on the first five plays, picking up 45 yards. Bishop Guertin faced a fourth-and-3 at the Grizzlies' 24-yard line and Moses connected with Baker for a 7-yard gain and a first down.

But three plays later, Stinnett made a big play, tipping a pass to himself and hauling in an interception to end the Bishop Guertin drive.

The Cardinals forced Goffstown to punt and Lupo returned the kick 28 yards to the Grizzlies 20, but the offense couldn't move and Goffstown blocked a field goal.

Three more drives inside the Grizzlies' 30 resulted in no points, with one ending on a fumble, and on the other two, Bishop Guertin turned the ball over on downs.

"Our defense came up big when it had to," Hufft said. "We knew BG was going to move the ball because they have playmakers. We knew it wasn’t going to be a thing where we could shut them down for the whole game, but we were able to get our backs inside the 20 and keep them out of the end zone a couple of times."

A 10-yard touchdown run by Henault early in the second gave Goffstown a 14-0 lead it took into halftime, and the Grizzlies blocked a Bishop Guertin punt on the first possession of the third quarter, setting up a 5-yard scoring run by Henault.

"The good teams, they capitalize on opportunities when they come up," Trisciani said. "You don’t know how many you’re going to get, and the teams that aren’t quite there yet don’t capitalize. If we’re going to get over the hump we’ve got to start coming away with points. You can’t down into the red zone multiple times and come away with a zero."