Offense comes alive as Bishop Guertin football beats Keene for first win (video)

NASHUA - John Trisciani will remember Saturday night's football game for a long, long time, and not just because his Bishop Guertin High School football team dominated Keene in all three phases of the game.

The Cardinals returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, found the end zone three more times in the first half, and kept the Blackbirds off the scoreboard in a 42-0 win at Stellos Stadium in a Division I West Conference matchup, the first win for Trisciani as a head coach.

"The best thing is you’re really happy for the kids," the coach said. "It’s the first one, and I’ll never forget it and the group that it was with."

And he'll never forget Joey Lupo's 85-yard kickoff return for a score to open the game, or the performance sophomore quarterback Joey DaSilva had in his first varsity start.

DaSilva completed 15 of 21 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another 75 yards and a score. Austin Hiscoe caught nine of those pass for 90 yards and two touchdowns, as the Cardinals (1-3) piled up 354 yards of offense.

"It felt amazing," DaSilva said. "Going into the game, our offense hasn’t been moving the ball well and our defense has been getting tired. It felt nice to get those touchdowns."

With the defense fresh, it was able to limit Keene to 102 yards, including just 38 in the second half. Matt Jankowski had 64 yards rushing to lead the Blackbirds (1-3), but 53 of that came on one carry, and quarterback Tucker Brown was 6 of 17 for 46 yards and an interception.

"I’m not sure if it was (DaSilva) or us, when they moved people around, we had poor coverage," Keene coach Bill Hope said. "We’ve got to do a better job and guys have to step up and play. When things go poorly, the kids who have not had success, it’s hard to keep their heart in the game."

After Lupo's kick return, the Cardinals forced Keene to punt, and Bishop Guertin found the end zone again. On fourth-and-8 at the Keene 28, DaSilva hit Lupo down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead.

The Cardinals added to that in the second quarter, getting a 58-yard touchdown run from Ryan Bue, and after a bad snap by Keene on a punt led to a safety, DaSilva hit Hiscoe for a 33-yard touchdown, and after the extra point was blocked, a 28-0 lead.

Keene went three-and-out to open the second half and was forced to punt. It looked like Lupo had another special teams touchdown, as he returned the kick 65 yards, but the Cardinals were flagged for a personal foul for helmet contact and started the drive from their own 27.

DaSilva led Bishop Guertin on an 11-play drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Hiscoe and a 35-0 lead. DaSilva added a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to finish out the scoring.

"I thought he did a pretty good job with what we were trying to do," Trisciani said of DaSilva. "It’s a step in a positive direction and it’s something we’d like to build off. I think even more than scoring the points, it’s how we played on defense, too."