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# Manchester Memorial football scores late to get win over Spaulding (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/manchester-memorial-football-scores-late-to-get-win-over-spaulding-video/
- Published: 2024-09-22T15:05:13.000Z
- Updated: 2024-09-22T15:05:13.000Z
- Description: MANCHESTER - First, Rob Sturgis had to get the Manchester Memorial High School football team to believe it could compete. Then, it was getting the Crusaders to believe they could win. For the second week in a row, that belief was there. Mo Olanweraju scored the go-ahead touchdown with just over four
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, football, Manchester Memorial, slider, Spaulding, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

MANCHESTER - First, Rob Sturgis had to get the Manchester Memorial High School football team to believe it could compete.

Then, it was getting the Crusaders to believe they could win. For the second week in a row, that belief was there.

Mo Olanweraju scored the go-ahead touchdown with just over four minutes to play and the Memorial defense came up with a stop in the final minutes to secure a 21-14 win Saturday afternoon over Spaulding in a Division I East Conference game.

This win comes a week after Memorial scored on the final play of the game for a 21-19 win against Dover.

"You teach them so long how to compete, now you have to teach them how to win," Sturgis said. "It’s all about mindset."

The Crusaders (2-0 in D1, 2-1 overall) picked up all 337 yards of offense on the ground, with Olanweraju rushing for 159 yards on 24 carries and two touchdowns. Jacob Schuff added 58 yards and a touchdown on five carries while Collin Beaulieu had 92 yards on 10 attempts.

With the Red Raiders (0-3) focused on taking away the Crusaders' outside running game, Memorial gave the ball to Olanweraju and he was able to pick up a lot of his yards running inside.

"They did a really good job of playing super wide and getting everyone going outside," Stugis said. "The nice thing about Mo is that if you give him the ball a couple of times and he gets going, he is just a load. His center of gravity is so low. His legs are strong. He’s the tough, grind it out guy, when teams want to take away the outside with all of our speed. Then we feed him."

Colby Lambert had 57 yards rushing and a touchdown for Spaulding while Max Drena completed 6 of 10 passes for 66 yards and a 34-yard touchdown to Aaron Geldart.

While the Red Raiders continue to cut down on the miscues that hampered them in their first two games of the season, there were still things where coach Dan Hodsdon sees room for improvement.

"This week, we didn’t have any turnovers, that was great," the coach said. "That was a big step forward. We had a couple of penalties at bad times. That’s stuff we need to clean up. I’ve told the kids every day, those are the things you can control as players. Until they clean that up and start executing better on offense, we’re going to be in these dog fights of games."

"We’ve played much better since that first week defensively. We need to figure it out sooner. We talked a lot about putting ourselves in holes and we were down 7-0 right away. Right out of the gate, we’re trying to climb out and that’s not a position that we’re built to deal with."

Memorial scored on each of its first two possessions, but Spaulding was able to answer each one and the game was tied at 14 going into the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders had a chance to take the lead on their first drive of the second half, as they went on a 10-play drive that got down to the Red Raiders' 8-yard line. But Memorial had to settle for a field goal attempt and Brady Harrison's 27-yard kick was tipped at the line and came up short.

Spaulding responded with a 10-play drive of its own, but that stalled at the Memorial 38\. Lambert's short punt went out at the 20 as the Crusaders took over with 9:34 to play.

Memorial went on a 10-play, 80-yard drive that took up five minutes and 31 seconds, taking the lead for good on Olanweraju's 5-yard touchdown run with 4:03 remaining.

"Our kids did a really good job responding after the missed field goal," Sturgis said. "With this offense, you never know what they’re going to line up in against us. Good job by the kids to respond and finish that last drive."

The Red Raiders took over at their own 40 with 3:57 to play and drove down to Memorial's 23-yard line. But Drena's pass attempts on third- and fourth-and-6 fell incomplete, turning the ball over on downs with 1:39 to play.

"It’s nice to see the kids progress every single week," Sturgis said. "We found a different way to win this week. There’s no such thing as a bad victory, but the kids are getting better at figuring out different ways to win."