Fall Mountain football overcame slow start to turn in best season in program's history

The 2019 started like way too many previous ones had for the Fall Mountain Regional High School football team.

Two weeks in, and the Wildcats were 0-2, having been outscored 64-21 by Raymond and Winnisquam, which were a playoff team and the Division IV champion, respectively, a year ago.

Up next was a game at Franklin, which was the runnerup in 2018, and things could have gone in the wrong direction quick for Fall Mountain.

Wildcats coach Orion Binney had reasons to believe his team could turn things around. Getting the players to do the same was going to be the tricky part.

"Those scores, I don’t think, were indicative of how close those games were," he said. "With the school’s history, with no winning seasons and no playoffs and stuff like that, I can tell them until I’m blue in the face that they’re a talented football team, but they had to believe."

Fall Mountain hadn't had a winning season since going 5-4 in 1999, and hadn't made the playoffs since 1994. In 2012, the school dropped its varsity program and played just a junior varsity schedule because of the struggles in previous seasons.

But instead of continuing that trend, the Wildcats regrouped and beat Franklin 36-0 to start a six-game winning streak that saw them win the program's first playoff game and reach a championship game for only the second time ever and first since 1977.

"Credit to my two captains, Morgan (Wilbur) and Sean (McAllister), for taking it seriously and getting the team together and realizing this is the team they could be," Binney said. "They got the rest of the kids to believe and that’s really all you can ask for."

Fall Mountain (6-3) turned its season around with defense, allowing just 14 points during the win streak, which included a 37-0 win over Raymond in the semifinals.

Despite beating the Wildcats 33-14 on Sept. 14, Winnisquam coach Derek Hunt knew that Saturday's D4 championship game would be different because of Fall Mountain's defense.

"It was a 7-0 game at halftime and we scored with 37 seconds left (in the half)," Hunt said of the regular-season meeting. We knew what we were in for, we knew they were better.

"They come out with different packages. They have a strong defense and they showed it. They showed us different things and it was confusing our linemen. Some of the things we did worked and made a difference, but they were solid with their defensive schemes and their pressure was relentless."

The Wildcats sacked Winnisquam quarterback Phil Nichols five times and held the Bears (9-0) to just 19 yards rushing on 23 carries. Fall Mountain got so much pressure on Nichols, Winnisquam struggled to find much success in its downfield passing game and scored both of its offensive touchdowns on short completions that Garret Mango was able to take the distance.

"We have such a talented defensive line and front seven, and defense as whole, just to be able to pin it back and get the pressure on them," Binney said. "I think we threw them off a bit offensively. They weren’t able to get those sustained drives that I know they like and they weren’t able to run the football."

Fall Mountain will graduate 14 seniors from this year's team, but will have some key players returning, including juniors Izaak Westover and Alex Flynn and sophomore quarterback Luke Gay. Unlike many Wildcats teams before them, they'll be returning with the belief that they can get to the playoffs and beyond.