Newport football hoping return trip to D3 final will have better ending

Larry McElreavy has good memories of last year's Division III football championship game, the first high school title game played at the University of New Hampshire's Cowell Stadium.

Well, all of it, except the end.

The Newport High School coach saw his Tigers fall at the hands of Campbell in the championship game tilt, and on Sunday, they'll have a chance to give the memory a happy ending. Newport will take on Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough at 11 a.m. Sunday in the D3 championship game at UNH.

There are plenty of key players back for the Tigers (10-0), including running back Noah Wade, but McElreavy isn't sure how much having experienced last year's game will help.

"It certainly isn't going to hurt us," McElreavy said. "We weren't successful, but the fact we've been in the stadium, and its bigger than what we have by 10 fold, is a positive thing. The intimidation and the awe-factor won't be there."

Who will be there is Wade, a senior who is one of the top running backs in the state with 1,560 yards and 27 rushing touchdowns, including 129 yards and two scores in last week's 47-7 semifinal win over Bow.

Wade and the Tigers will face a challenge against the Lakers' defense, which held Newport to one of its lowest point totals during the regular season.

ILMA (9-1) also held previously-unbeaten Winnisquam to 20 points, its lowest total of the year, last weekend, and limited the Bears' Christian Serrano to 189 yards, 93 of which came in the final quarter.

"When they shut someone down like Christian Serrano, that better open your eyes our you'll be in trouble," McElreavy said. "That was the difference in the game, they cut down his production. They're good defensively, and we're going to have to play exceptional."

Newport did in its elimination of Bow. While the game was close early, Newport scored 15 points the final minutes of the first half helped the Tigers blow the game open.

With just under two minutes to play before halftime, Dylan McNamara hit Stephan Nix for a 34-yard touchdown, and after Bow fumbled away the kickoff, Wade went 15-yards to make it a 27-7 lead at the break.

"It's a momentum changer," McElreavy said. "If you can get a score before the half, that elates you and demoralizes the other team. We were fortunate to be in that situation."

The Tiger shave been in that situation a lot this season, averaging 43.3 points per game and scoring less than 34 just once all season.

But for Newport to get the win Sunday, McElreavy feels the Tigers have to be solid on all sides of the ball.

"We've got to excel at all three aspects of the game," he said. "We're not going to stop them, but we have to slow them down. (ILMA) has some exceptional athletes. We've got to slow them down, the offense has got to put points on the board, and then not make mistakes on special teams."