Kingswood football rallies in fourth quarter for win over Merrimack Valley

PENACOOK - When reflecting on his team’s 14-13 Division II North victory at Merrimack Valley on Friday night, Kingswood Regional High School football coach Paul Landry said the Knights “never let go of the rope.”

When the fourth quarter began, Merrimack Valley (2-5) had a 13-8 lead and had scored 10 unanswered points but the Knights (3-4) were in the middle of what proved to be their game-winning drive.

On the fifth play of the fourth quarter and 11th of its 57-yard drive, Kingswood scored the go-ahead touchdown with 9:52 remaining, when junior Jackson McCullough ran five yards through the heart of the Pride defense and into the end zone.

“It was all about ball control and trying to keep the chains moving, keep the clock going,” Landry said of his team’s game-winning drive. “That's our game is running it and everything that we can do to do that is who we are. We’re muckers and that’s just how we play the game right now.”

Merrimack Valley turned the ball over on downs on its first offensive drive after the Knights pulled ahead but its defense forced them to do the same, giving the Pride offense the ball on its on 36-yard line with 2:14 left.

The Pride’s hope of marching down the field and retaking the lead was short lived.

Knights junior Pat Runnals intercepted Merrimack Valley senior quarterback Chase Keyser on the Pride’s first play of what proved to be their final offensive possession. Kingswood took over at the Pride 36 and ran out the game’s final two minutes.

“We always say that big players make big plays and Pat is a kid that came to play with us this year after not playing last year and he’s just a helluva athlete and made a huge play for us,” Landry said. “We’re just so thankful that we got that because obviously that changed the momentum.”

A Travis Knouse 22-yard touchdown run and an 18-yard field goal by Matt Grandmaison in the first half gave the Pride a 10-8 halftime lead. 

Grandmaison opened the game’s scoring with his first field goal, which came with 5:20 left in the opening quarter and capped Merrimack Valley’s 13-play, 56-yard game-opening drive. 

The Knights answered with a nine-play, 58-yard drive that concluded with a McCullough 4-yard scamper into the end zone with 2:34 remaining in the first quarter. Kingswood followed up with a fake point-after kick two-point conversion run by Devan Wade to pull ahead, 8-3. 

The Pride regained the lead with Knouse’s TD run and a Grandmaison point-after kick, which came with 10:06 left in the second quarter. 

Grandmaison made a 21-yard field goal with 3:38 left in the third quarter to give Merrimack Valley a 13-8 advantage on the team’s third-to-last offensive possession.

“It’s good to get the three points don’t get me wrong but six points is better than three,” Pride coach Joe Raycraft said. “We’re fortunate that we have Matt to come in and we had a good snap, good hold and a good kick but we’ve got to get six points on some of those drives. Those drives are going to be crucial to us.”

Knouse ran for a game-high 81 yards on 16 carries and Keyser went 4 of 7 passing for 45 yards. Habakku Tarwo ran six times for 34 yards and made a 5-yard catch while Seth Baylus and Ethan Drapeau each had a sack on defense for Merrimack Valley.

McCullough logged 49 rushing yards on nine carries and sacked Keyser four times on defense. Wade logged 38 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Matt Drew ran 12 times for 49 yards and Connor DeMasi had a sack for the Knights.

“I think both teams wanted to win real bad but I think the bottom line is the Kingswood Knights have been trying so hard for so many years and we’re finally getting on the better end of some games,” Landry said. “We’re feeling good right now.”