Hillsboro-Deering comes back to beat Mascoma Valley, win D4 football title

LACONIA – Staring at a 14-point deficit in the second quarter, the Hillsboro-Deering High School football team needed to reverse the momentum that defending-champion Mascoma Valley was building during Saturday afternoon’s Division IV championship game.

The Hillcats did that and they didn’t give the Royals much of a chance to respond in the second half.

Top-seeded Hillsboro-Deering dug out of its early hole by scoring 28 unanswered points to claim the program’s first championship with a 34-20 victory over No. 2 Mascoma at Laconia High School’s Bank of NH Stadium.

Senior running back Robert King led Hillsboro-Deering with 202 rushing yards on 23 carries with two touchdowns. Classmate Daniel Richard added 87 yards on 13 rushes with a pair of scores.

“We were taking some tough hits, Mascoma is an amazing team, but I think we wanted it more (Saturday) and I think that’s how we got it done,” King said. “It’s just discipline. We’re out there fighting tooth and nail. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out. This is the best feeling in the world. I wish everybody could feel this way”

Hillsboro-Deering (8-1) swept its way through Division IV competition this fall, with its only loss coming to Division III Somersworth. Jay Wood has been coaching the Hillcats for 12 years, with the past two coming in Division IV. They dropped down from Division II after their co-op arrangement with Hopkinton ended.

“It’s nothing we didn’t know we could do, it was just a matter of putting it together and believing in ourselves,” Wood said. “There were some doubts creeping in at halftime and we had to address that. We said you’ve got to trust and you’ve got to believe."

After King opened the game’s scoring with a 60-yard touchdown run, Mascoma (6-2) responded with three touchdowns beginning with scoring runs of 3 and 20 yards by Paxton Roberts to give the Royals a 14-6 lead entering the second quarter.

Mascoma padded its lead on Declan Lyon’s 10-yard touchdown run, before Richard scored from 23 yards out to trim Mascoma’s lead to 20-13 with 7:59 left in the second quarter that bled into halftime.

Hillsboro-Deering locked Mascoma’s offense out of the game by chewing up the entirety of the third quarter with a 19-play, 80-yard drive. King rushed for 43 yards on the drive and also caught a 15-yard pass from quarterback Josh Perron on third-and-5 to get down to Mascoma’s 26-yard line.

The drive appeared to stall on the 10 when the Hillcats lined up for a field goal. Instead, Perron pulled the ball as the holder, rolled out and found Chase Owen in the corner for a touchdown to bring Hillsboro-Deering within 20-19 as time expired in the third.

“It was always in the game script but we’ve never ran it,” Perron said. “When coach told me to pull it, I just knew it was in. I’m just so glad we got it.”

After Mascoma punted on the ensuing possession, King ripped off a 52-yard touchdown run and added a two-point conversion to give the Hillcats a 27-20 lead with 9:11 left in regulation.

Hillsboro-Deering sealed the victory when Michah Adams intercepted Mascoma quarterback Justin Fletcher at Mascoma’s 35. Richard scored six plays later with a 6-yard scoring run to give Hillsboro-Deering the 34-20 lead.

“They chewed up the clock so well, they controlled the tempo, they slowed it down. They took a whole quarter on a single drive; that's outstanding,” Mascoma coach John Daley said. “That was a great game of football. We played well, but Hillsboro played a little bit better.”