Defensive stand helped swing momentum for Monadnock football

Through 12 minutes of game action Friday night, it looked like the Monadnock Regional High School football team was going to roll to another victory over Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton.

In two games last season, the Huskies outscored the Redhawks 92-6, and at the end of the first quarter, they had a 22-6 lead.

But then things got a little strange.

On fourth-and-3 at the Redhawks 28-yard line, Monadnock quarterback Nate Doyle's pitch to Lincoln Blodgett was off the mark and bounced away from the line of scrimmage. HDH's Max Costello saw the loose ball and raced in to scoop up the fumble before anyone from Monadnock could react.

With a handful of teammates slowing down and Huskies that tried to catch him, Costello returned the fumble 65 yards for a touchdown to make it a 22-14 game.

Then, the ensuing kickoff looked like it was going to be a touchback, but the ball bounced perpendicular to the goal line and the Huskies started the next drive inside their own 20. Two plays later, a Blodgett fumble was recovered by the Redhawks at the Monadnock 19.

Two players later, and HDH was looking at first-and-goal from the Huskies' 2-yard line. But on first down, Colby Quiet was stopped for no gain, and on second down, Monadnock stopped Dylan Barrett for a 4-yard loss. Costello threw incomplete on third down and on fourth-and-goal from the 6, the senior quarterback was sacked for a 5-yard loss and HDH (4-2) turned the ball over on downs.

While the Huskies (4-2) wouldn't score again for the rest of the half, they set the tone for the rest of what turned into a 52-20 win.

"That was huge," Monadnock coach Ryan Avery said. "They had the ball first-and-goal at the 4-yard line and we hold them out. I think it was a confidence-builder for us, for the defense. With Colby Quiet, he can score from anywhere. It was a big confidence booster."

For the players, it was a matter of just remembering what kind of football they wanted to be playing

"Knowing our keys that we worked on throughout practice and making the plays happen on defense helped us on offense," Blodgett said of the defensive stand. "We talked about the mentality that we’re trying to have throughout the rest of the season. No body can stop us if we work our hardest, if we’re making tackles and wrapping up. I could tell that all the kids on defense wanted to go out there and bash people after that."

The defense effort overall was solid for Monadnock. Although Quiet rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carriers, 113 of those yards came on the senior's two touchdown runs, and the rest of the Redhawks' offense had minus-3 yards on the day.

HDH only had four first downs, with one coming in the second half.

After losing two games in a row - the team's first regular-season losses going back to 2015 - and having a closer-than-expected win at Newport the week before, getting a convincing win over the Redhawks was what the Huskies needed.

"We talked about playing well," Avery said. "We keep searching to play well for four quarters, and even (Friday), we started off on fire and then we let up a little in the second quarter. It was tighter at halftime than we wanted. I think this will be a confidence booster for us."