Merrimack football was able to overcome mistakes to advance in playoffs

It looked like something carried over into the playoffs for the Merrimack High School football team.

A week prior, the Tomahawks began their regular-season finale against Bedford with a long opening drive that ended in a field goal, but set the tone for what turned into the program's first win over the Bulldogs.

Against Portsmouth-Oyster River in last Friday's 14-6 Tomahawks' win in the Division I preliminary-round game, it looked like more of the same to start.

No. 8 Merrimack took the opening kickoff and went on a 12-play drive that took up almost five minutes, as the Tomahawks move all the way down to the No. 9 ClipperCats' 5-yard line. A fumbled snap pushed them back to the 9, but on third-and-8, Reimello Hyde fan into the end zone, appearing to give Merrimack and early lead.

And that's where things went sideways.

The Tomahawks were called for a hold on the play, pushing them back to the 16, and after picking up just four yards, they settled for a 30-yard field goal attempt by Reese Lopez. The kick was no good and Merrimack came away from the opening drive with nothing.

"I think what happened, the kids got accustomed to what happened last week, where we got the ball, drove right down and we scored," Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. "We continued to do the same thing. When we missed the field goal, I thought it kind of took some air out of our confidence."

That dip in confidence also seemed to bring back some mistakes that the Tomahawks were able to avoid the week before.

Merrimack was called for six penalties for 45 yards in the first half and turned the ball over twice. Fortunately, the Tomahawks defense was able to rise to the occasion and held POR to just 19 yards in the game's first 24 minutes.

"Guys were shellshocked," POR coach Brian Pafford said. "We didn’t realize how big they were. It’s hard to tell how big someone is (on film). In the beginning, they came out flying around. I don’t think we held our own, but we didn’t let them score."

That changed on Merrimack's first drive of the second half, as the Tomahawks went 55 yards in five plays, scoring on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Trent Jackson to Owen Sadowski.

The ClipperCats found a way to answer, going 58 yards on 13 plays while using up 5:46 of the clock. POR converted two third downs on the drive and a fourth-and-15 that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Gunner Jackson.

"We changed our blocking scheme at halftime and that helped a little bit," Pafford said. "We put two backs in the backfield. It picked up a lot."

But with the visitors still riding high from the score, the extra point by Nick Smith clanged off the right upright and fell to the grass, keeping Merrimack ahead 7-6.

"We had momentum after our first score and I was hoping we’d be able to get a stop, but they did a really good job of picking themselves up," Kip Jackson said. "They drove right down and got that score. Believe it or not, the ball hitting the upright sort of changed things a little bit."

Merrimack came back with a seven-play, 65-yard drive that was aided by 35 yards in penalties on the ClipperCats, and ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Hyde. Two plays later, Garron Brown intercepted a pass by Evan Graham and it looked like the Tomahawks were going to put the game away.

On fourth-and-9 at the POR 29-yard line, Trent Jackson found Sadowski for a completion right at the first-down marker, moving the chains. The two combined for another completion on the next play, but as Sadowski was running inside the 5-yard line, the ball came out and the ClipperCats recovered.

Starting at their own 3, they were able to move down to the Merrimack 31-yard line, but eventually turned the ball over on downs.

"We had momentum after that but unfortunately, we couldn’t finish a couple of drives," Kip Jackson said. "That’s been the story of our season. We are a Jekyll-and-Hyde team."

The Tomahawks will have to figure out a way to get Jekyll to show up a little more frequently this weekend, as they now head to face top-seeded Londonderry, the defending D1 champions. That game is scheduled to kickoff at 1 p.m. on Saturday.