New look on offense giving Bishop Guertin football a boost

GOFFSTOWN - The last two weeks, Anthony Nalen has acknowledged how tough it is for an offense to go on long drives over and over again.

It may be the case, but Nalen's Bishop Guertin High School football team is making it look easy.

A week after using a 19-play, 76-yard drive to force overtime in an eventual loss to Nashua South, the Cardinals turned to the ground-and-pound gameplan all throughout Friday's 28-20 win over Goffstown.

Three of Bishop Guertin's four touchdown drives lasted for more than five minutes, covered 76 yards or more, and needed double digit plays. That included a 10-play, 94-yard drive in the third quarter that ended with a 14-yard touchdown run by Nate Bowen and gave the Cardinals a two-touchdown lead that proved crucial down the stretch.

"Anytime you can get those two (scores), especially with both offensives not being high-powered, it’s good to have that," Nalens said. "I thought they (the Cardinals) played tough. They did that against South, too, it just didn’t go our way. I thought we had a better start to the game and that was our rally cry all week, to not get behind the eight ball. I thought they responded well with that."

The Cardinals (1-1) never trailed after taking an early lead, and the game was never tied, as they ran for 256 yards and averaged 5.3 yards per carry.

Bowen led the way, racking up 100 yards and two touchdowns while completing 6 of 11 passes for 60 yards. AJ Holmes added 101 yards and another score while Jonah Feliciano stepped into the lineup and added 34 yards on eight carries.

"Everyone in the running back core has a different job," Bowen said. "I just like to assist those guys. The line was just making big holes. The wide receivers were doing a good job of blocking and catching the ball. We had an all-around good game."

Anyone who has watched Bishop Guertin over most of the last decade might not recognize it.

"This was definitely not our makeup last year, so some of our guys aren’t comprehending it at times, that we’re going to run the ball this much," Nalen said. "I tell them that we’re going to try to put them in the best position possible to be successful."

Although Goffstown coach John Preston is in his first year as the Grizzlies coach, he watched enough film on Bishop Guertin to know what kind of change the Cardinals have made on offense this year.

"He knows his strength right now is running the football behind that offensive line and those big backs," Preston said. "That’s impressive and it takes a lot of guts to do that kind of thing. They’re a good team. We’re starting to learn how to go toe-to-toe to that."

Goffstown got a lot of its offense from the arm and the legs of quarterback Jayden Pares. The senior ran for 73 of his team's 102 rushing yards while going 12 of 25 for 180 yards and two touchdowns and an interception.

That pick came on the first possession of the second half, when Goffstown drove to the Bishop Guertin 32-yard line, but the Cardinals' Ryan Connelly came down with a jump ball from Pares to give his team the ball at its own 6.

A year ago, Bishop Guertin might have tried to flip the field on one big play. Instead, it used that power running game to eat up the clock and control the game.

"That drive, we felt confident in some of the run plays that we were calling and we kept going back to the well," Nalen said. "Our line did outstanding. It’s hard to make a living driving the ball in 14 plays because you’ve got to be consistent. We were (Friday)."