Monadnock football runs over Campbell in matchup of D3 unbeatens

SWANZEY - The Monadnock Regional High School football team doesn’t do much celebrating after it scores touchdowns or make big plays. There’s always something more for the Huskies to play for, and that was on display Friday night.

Against the same Campbell Cougars that beat them in the Division III title game a year ago, the Huskies went to work and didn’t stop for 48 minutes, as they took apart the Cougars 36-14 in front of a packed house to snap Campbell’s 18-game winning streak.

The game was tied at 8 in the first half but a run of 22 unanswered points by the Huskies put the game out of reach.

The game was put out of reach thanks to a dominant performance in the running game by seniors Chandler Matson and Tim Hart. Matson rushed for 115 yards and two scores while Hart had 116 yards and a pair of scores himself.

Matson rushed for 105 yards in the first half.

“He takes it very seriously,” Monadnock coach Ryan Avery said of Matson. “He goes to the weight room in the offseason all the time, and he enjoys it. It’s a mentality for the whole team. It’s something we want to run downhill. If we’re getting tackled we want to go down while going forward.”

Hart had 82 of his yards, and both scores, in the second half including a spectacular 11-yard run where he dragged multiple Cougars over the goal line. Monadnock rushed 280 yards.

“We just came out hungry,” Hart said. “We saw we could win the game. I thought I did good.”

Tim Santaw got the scoring early for the Huskies. Campbell tied the game on a 70-yard run by Keegan Mills in the second quarter but it was all Huskies the rest of the way.

Mills led Campbell with 84 yards rushing, but the Cougar offense couldn’t do much consistently thanks to the Huskies defense. Campbell was held to 180 yards of total offense and 100 of those yards came on just two rushing plays, including Mills’ touchdown. Mills left the game in the third quarter with an injury to his left arm and did not return.

Monadnock opened up a 30-8 lead by the fourth quarter. Santaw ran the offense brilliantly, and his 27 yards on three completions did enough to keep the Cougar defense honest and opened holes for the wishbone rushing attack.

“Tim has really stepped up this year and made a commitment to trying to learn how we can throw the ball,” Avery said. “Everyone knows we’re a running team. When you can get three or four completions it backs them off a bit, and Tim does a really good job of adjusting the line and finding the soft spot in there.”

The win leaves Monadnock as the lone unbeaten team in Division III and one of five remaining in the state.