Londonderry football pulls away late to beat Windham in D1 playoffs (video)

LONDONDERRY - It took a while for the Londonderry High School football team to wake up on offense.

Fortunately, the Lancers' defense came ready to play in Saturday's Division I preliminary-round game.

For the third time this season, Londonderry didn't allow a point on defense and the offense came to life in the final seven minutes to propel the Lancers to a 21-2 win over Windham. Londonderry moves on to the D1 quarterfinals, where it will play at Salem, which beat Alvirne 53-6 in the preliminary round.

Dylan McEachern ran for 102 yards and a touchdown and was 7 of 13 passing for 103 yards and another score, but up until the fourth quarter, it was the Londonderry defense that had controlled the game for the Lancers (4-2).

Windham had the ball in Londonderry territory on six of its 10 possessions, twice getting inside the Lancers' 10-yard line in the first half and twice inside the 25 in the second half. But each time, the Jaguars were unable to score.

"They’ve come up big all year," Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. "Hopefully they continue the rest of the way. It’s been bend, don’t break, and that’s been our mentality for a while. That’s nothing new to football. You know your back is going to be up against the wall at some point. They step up and they seem to thrive on that."

That was the case at the end of the first half.

Londonderry went on a 12-play, 89-yard drive, scoring on a 14-yard touchdown pass from McEachern to Wil Reyes to take a 7-2 lead with 1:45 to go until halftime. Windham answered with its best drive of the game, thanks in part to a couple of Lancers' penalties that led to first downs.

With two seconds left in the half, the Jaguars faced a third-and-6 from the Londonderry 11, and quarterback Rocky Heres hit Joey DaSilva near the goal line. But Nick Asadorrian was right there to make the tackle on DaSilva, bringing him down inside the 1-yard line to end the half.

"It’s always tougher when you get in the red zone, especially when you haven’t established yourself as a powerful offense," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "Once you break through, it’s a little easier. We’ve had years when the offense is so electric, it doesn’t matter where you are on the field. When it tightens up and you haven’t been able to break through, it’s tough to finish."

Windham (0-4) broke on to the scoreboard first. After its first drive stalled, the Jaguars were able to down a punt by DaSilva at the 1-yard line. On the next play, McEachern was brought down in the end zone for a safety and a 2-0 Windham lead with 8:39 left in the opening quarter.

The Jaguars returned the ensuing free kick to the Lancers' 39, and got down to the Londonderry 9-yard line. But on fourth-and-goal, Heres' touchdown pass to Cole Peterson was called back on a hold, and Reyes' blocked a field goal attempt by Adam Burke.

Londonderry finally got something going midway through the second quarter on its long touchdown drive, but on the first four possessions of the second half, the Lancers failed to pick up a first down. Momentum looked to shift the Jaguars' way when, after catching a pass from McEachern, Asadorrian fumbled and it was recovered by DaSilva.

But Windham's offense went nowhere as Londonderry forced a punt, and Asadorrian made up for the fumble by returning the kick 32 yards to the Lancers 37. McEachern got the running game going, and on third-and-6, the senior ran 38 yards for a touchdown and a 14-2 lead with 6:48 to play.

After forcing a turnover on downs, Londonderry took over at Windham's 30, and three plays later, Trevor Weinmann ran 16 yards for a score.

"All the credit to the defense, they played two great halves and the offense really only played one," Lauzon said. "Our offense this year has been slow-starting. We’ve killed ourselves a few times and our defense has bailed us out. They bought us enough time to figure some things out and get going."