Nashua North football muscles its way past Merrimack (video)

MERRIMACK - The Nashua High School North football team wanted to limit the number of opportunities for Merrimack's offense Friday night.

Perhaps the best way to do that was for the Titans to take advantage of their own chances.

North forced three turnovers, scored points off all of them, and pushed the Tomahawks around on the way to a 45-20 win over Merrimack in a Division I contest.

The Titans scored on their opening drive, then took the ball away from Merrimack on its first two possessions, getting points off both turnovers to take a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. In the second half, North's defense stepped up, getting pressure and limiting the number of big plays for the Tomahawks.

"We just tried to limit their touches and do the best we can to keep them contained," North coach Dante Laurendi said. "You see how fast they can score. They get one pass and their down to the goal line. Any time Joe Eichman gets his hands on the ball, he’s a threat to score. You don’t have a safe lead against these guys."

No one on the North sideline felt that way at halftime, when the Titans, despite over two hundred yards of offense on the ground, had just a 10-point lead, 24-14. But Merrimack (3-2) wasn't able to find the end zone again until late in the fourth quarter, after North (3-2) had started to pull away.

RJ Jenkins led North with 175 yards rushing on 23 carries and two touchdowns, while Brian Montminy also went over a hundred yards, picking up 118 on 20 carries and three touchdowns. Quarterback Mike Loveless added 97 yards and a score on nine carries, as the Titans ran for 390 yards.

"The quarterback is a good athlete and a good runner on the power read," Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. "We saw it and prepared for it, but we didn’t prepare well enough.

"We were having a hard enough time stopping them, but to give them extra opportunities made it tougher. It was 24-14 at the half and they scored 10 points off turnovers. It could have been a different game, but the bottom line is they just physically beat us."

Jenkins started the scoring just 1:24 into the game, when he raced 65 yards for a touchdown on the third play from scrimmage. Then, on Merrimack's third offensive play, North's Ryan Ali was able to rip the ball away from Brian Genet to give the Titans possession at the Tomahawks' 38-yard line.

That turnover led to a 34-yard field goal by Caio Campo to make it 10-0 with 4:18 left in the first quarter. Merrimack got a drive going on its next possession, getting down to the North 13, but two big plays by Kevin Maldonado ended the Tomahawks' threat.

On first-and-10 at the 13, Maldonado sacked Ryan Devanna for a 6-yard loss, and on the next play, the North junior made a one-handed interception that he returned 45 yards to the Merrimack 40-yard line.

"I saw when they ran the screen the first time and I didn’t realize it," Maldonado said. "The second time, I realized the linemen went upfield and passed me. I looked for the back and kept my eye on the quarterback. It was just in the moment."

Loveless broke free on the next play for a 39-yard gain to the 1-yard line, and called his own number on the next play for the touchdown and a 17-0 lead with 56.1 left in the first.

"If you can win the turnover battle, that’s huge and we got some at key times," Laurendi said. "Having that turned the momentum. Any time that they don’t have the ball, it’s a good thing because they’re so explosive."

Merrimack got on the board on two rushing touchdowns from Joe Eichman, who finished with just 89 yards of offense, but in between, Montminy scored his first touchdown of the day.

After the Tomahawks had their first drive of the second half stall at North's 39-yard line, the Titans changed field position on a 46-yard run by Jenkins. Merrimack's defense was able to keep North out of the end zone at first, but the Tomahawks were called for encroachment as the Titans lined up for a field goal on fourth-and-3 at the 6-yard line.

Two plays later, Jenkins ran it in from 3 yards out to give North a 31-14 lead. Montminy added two more touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, and Eichman had another late to finish out the scoring.

"We stopped them and then jumped offsides on a field goal attempt," Jackson said. "You just can’t do that against good teams. We made more mistakes than any team should make."

Devanna finished the game 26 of 44 passing for 330 yards with two interceptions, while Genet had eight catches for 83 yards and Ben Eichman added three receptions for 104 yards for Merrimack.