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# Heads-up plays help Winnacunnet football continue to roll
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/heads-up-plays-help-winnacunnet-football-continue-to-roll/
- Published: 2020-10-07T17:05:52.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-07T17:05:52.000Z
- Description: Ryan Francoeur has been coaching football for a while and he's never seen a throw like the one that ended last Friday's game. With Francoeur's Winnacunnet High School football team holding a 14-7 lead over Portsmouth-Oyster River, the ClipperCats had one final chance to try to get in the end zone.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, football, NH High School Sports Insider, Portsmouth-Oyster River, Winnacunnet, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Ryan Francoeur has been coaching football for a while and he's never seen a throw like the one that ended last Friday's game.

With Francoeur's Winnacunnet High School football team holding a 14-7 lead over Portsmouth-Oyster River, the ClipperCats had one final chance to try to get in the end zone.

On fourth down at POR's 40-yard line, quarterback Billy Omahen heaved a pass downfield that was caught by Joe Sigmon at the Winnacunnet 5\. After seeing where the ball was going, senior Ben Chase came over to make the tackle on Sigmon at the 2 and end the game, preserving the win for the Warriors.

"I've never seen a high school kid launch a ball like that," Francoeur said of Omahen's pass. "Ben has definitely improved his game since last year. He's bigger, stronger, more confident. He had a big interception earlier in the game.

"That last play, we had a Cover 4 shell and he's not supposed to let anyone behind him. He had the outside quarter and you can see on film, he sees a guy free in the middle and starts tracking that. If he stays where he should stay, that's a touchdown. It was a heads-up play by a senior."

But as big as that play was to help the Warriors go to 2-0 on the year, it also showed Francoeur what he and the coaching staff still need to go over with the team in practice.

"That last play was frustrating from a coaching perspective," he said. "We have to do a little bit better situationally as a coaching staff. You have only so much time and you're working on a lot of things. We put in a prevent defense, but maybe we don't rep it as much.

"You do it so much, you assume things. You might have the right call, but you can't assume they're going to execute it if you haven't given them time to practice."

After a scoreless first half, Winnacunnet took a 7-0 lead in the third quarter on a 37-yard pass from Kyle Tilley to Elynn Houston. POR tied it up early in the fourth quarter, when Omahen connected with Matthew Koener on a 24-yard touchdown.

Tilley scored what proved to be winning touchdown with 49 seconds left, as his second effort on third-and-goal from the 1 gave the Warriors the lead for good.

"I really like the confidence Kyle plays with," Francoeur said. "He was definitely never going to give up. He's a tough kid, a physical kid, he shows good leadership and the kids believe in him. The fact that he wasn't having his best game and still created an opportunity for the team to win says a lot about him."

With two last-second wins, both on defensive plays, Winnacunnet has already surpassed last season's win total, which Francoeur believes is big for the players moving forward.

"It's absolutely huge for us," he said. "To go 1-8 (in 2019) it was maybe our worst record in 20 years. Everybody understood where we were. The kids believed we'd get to a point where we were playing better football."

Francoeur sees a similar team on the schedule this week, with Winnacunnet headed to Dover on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

"Dover reminds me a lot of ourselves," Francoeur said. "They started a lot of sophomores last year. We have to have our best foot forward. It should be a great game and it's going to be a battle."