Merrimack football ends its season on a high note with win over Timberlane (video)

MERRIMACK - Kip Jackson needed to know what the Merrimack High School football team was going to do and he needed to know soon.

When the Tomahawks season came to an unexpected end after a loss to Alvirne in the final week before the playoffs, they had the option to play an extra game Thursday night against another team that would be out of the postseason.

Jackson found out over the weekend that his team's opponent would be Timberlane, and with a quicker turnaround for the game, he needed to give Owls coach Kevin Fitzgerald an answer fast.

Merrimack was in the same position two years ago and opted to play against Manchester Memorial, but had a rough go of it, as injuries and apathy left the Tomahawks playing a lot of backups in a loss.

“It was a horrific experience,” Jackson said. “I was talking to the Timberlane coaches over the weekend, and I was like, I don’t know if we’re going to have enough kids that are going to be engaged enough to play. I texted the captains, because we met on Sunday about it also, and they’re like ‘we don’t know.’”

The more he thought about it, Jackson recalled a conversation the players and coaches had a few weeks before, when discussing their reasons for being a part of the football program.

“The kids were talking about their whys and one of their whys was to play for the seniors,” Jackson said. “The seniors want to play the game, so if that’s your ‘why,’ then suck it up and play the game.

“One of the problems that we have right now is we allow kids, and people, to just do what they want instead of doing the right thing. The right thing is to play the game. If we have a game scheduled, we have to play the game, and we have to play it the right way.”

The players were onboard, and despite the disappointment of how the season ended, the Tomahawks went through a great couple days of practice before taking on Timberlane.

“It was good for us to play this week,” Merrimack senior Zach Retey said. “We had a tough loss (against Alvirne) but that didn’t stop us from coming out strong this week. Our guys put in a lot of effort, a lot of hard work this week. We watched film, did really well this week, and I’m proud of the guys. It was definitely a good way to end it.”

Retey made a play right before halftime that helped swing momentum Merrimack's way. With the Tomahawks clinging to a slim lead, and the Owls driving, Retey picked up a fumble and returned it for a score to give Merrimack a 20-12 lead at the break.

That momentum carried over into the second half, as the Tomahawks scored 32 unanswered points and beat the Owls 52-12.

“Going into the half, we had that fumble recovery touchdown, which made for a huge momentum change,” Merrimack senior Cayden Dine said. “When we came out for the second half, we just knew our defense had to keep getting stops to win this game.”

Merrimack recovered two fumbles and got an interception on defense while also blocking a punt. Dine helped the Tomahawks cash in on most of those plays, as he caught a touchdown pass from Maverick Torres and then threw touchdown passes to Retey and Stephen Doyle. Shea Scott also ran for a touchdown in the second half.

“The momentum of going into and winning this game should take over the offseason,” Dine said. “It shows kids why they should go to the weight room and work out with the team and just get better overall.”

It makes Jackson think back to that game against Memorial two years ago, and while it wasn't a great night for the Tomahawks, it did a lot for the Crusaders.

After making the playoffs for the first time in 21 years last season, Memorial goes into this year's playoffs as the No. 2 seed with a first-round bye after ending the regular season with wins over Nashua South, Pinkerton and Exeter.

“We talked about that in pre-game,” Jackson said. “We talked about it earlier in the week, that it was a springboard for (Memorial’s) offseason going into last season. Having those extra days of practice, our young guys get more reps.”

Getting that extra time wasn't just a great feeling for the seniors, but they hope it sends a message to the players returning to keep putting in the work.

“Hopefully it just set an example of hard work and how to win games,” Merrimack senior Shea Egan said. “We don’t want the same old Merrimack anymore. We want Merrimack to be good.”