Game plan went right this time around for Plymouth football

Before Saturday's Division II semifinal, Chris Sanborn never talked to his Plymouth Regional High School football team about the championship game.

Sure, typical coach speak would say the Bobcats were only focusing on one game at a time, but in Sanborn's case, there was another reason the word championship was never mentioned.

He wasn't thinking about it.

"I did not spend one second at any moment thinking about a championship," Sanborn said. "I was just thinking about (Saturday). I was packing it up."

The Bobcats coach knew that for Plymouth to get a win over Souhegan, things were going to have to go a lot differently than they did when the teams met in the regular season. On the final Friday in September, the Bobcats traveled to Amherst and lost by 43 points to the Sabers.

"We were just terrible," Sanborn said. "We were terrible that day and we couldn’t be any worse. We knew what we were up against and we had to play really well."

Plymouth didn't at first, losing a fumble on its first possession and giving up two touchdowns on each of Souhegan's first two possessions. But as the first half wore on, and the Bobcats stayed in the game, they were able to do the things they needed to swing things in their favor.

First and foremost, that meant keeping the ball out of the Sabers' hands.

"We wanted possessions, we wanted the ball in our hands," Sanborn said. "We had those long drives. The clock was ticking."

The Bobcats had the ball for 33 minutes, 32 seconds, compared to just 14:06 for the Sabers. They had three drives of 11 or more plays, including an 11-play drive in the second quarter that only covered 35 yards and ended in a turnover on downs, but it ate up almost six minutes.

"That’s a great game plan by them," Souhegan coach Robin Bowkett said. "They were content with getting four yards at a time and that made sense for them."

But if not for a stretch in the second quarter, Plymouth might not have been in possession to use up as much clock as it did in the second half.

After the Bobcats went in front 7-6 just 32 seconds into the second quarter, it took the Sabers two plays and 46 seconds to retake the lead. Plymouth looked like it might go on a long drive, but turned the ball over on downs at the Souhegan 48-yard line.

A 26-yard catch-and-run from Romy Jain to Brody Smith gave the Sabers a first down on Plymouth's 27. But after Jain ran for a loss of 1, he was picked off by Jaxon Rineer at the Bobcats' 1.

Plymouth ended up punting and a 23-yard run by JJ Bright put the Sabers on the Bobcats' 16, but Jain fumbled on first down and Tyler Medeiros recovered to give Plymouth the ball.

Connor Cassidy picked off Luke Diamond on the next play to give Souhegan possession back at Plymouth's 37 with 1:42 left in the half. The Sabers got down to the Bobcats' 10, but on third and fourth down, Jain threw incomplete and the half came to an end.

"That was really probably was the play of the game, that stop before the half," Sanborn said. "We had a couple of big stops. It was big moments. That kind of swung momentum our way and our kids believed they could do it. They’ve got some studs over there. I said to the boys at halftime, they’re not looking past you.

"I thought our kids played their tails off. I wanted them to experience something like this."