On the Gridiron: Pinkerton football celebrated Halloween with new life

The night before Halloween, and the Pinkerton Academy football team was just under three minutes away from seeing its season suffer an unexpected death.

Somehow, the Astros rose from the ashes, coming back from the edge of the abyss to live to fight another day. An Exeter fumble with 2:56 to play gave Pinkerton the ball at its own 39-yard line, and eight plays later, Nico Buccieri scored to give the Astros a 13-12 win on Friday.

That sequence not only saved Pinkerton's season - a loss would have knocked the Astros out of the playoffs - but it thrust the Astros up to the No. 1 seed in Division I's South/East cluster.

"That was a good gutcheck for our kids," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "I told the (players) on the sideline, I was going to start to burn my timeouts before that fumble. It is hard to stop that offense when (Exeter coach Bill Ball) has got that thing moving.

"I don't know how that ball came out, but to get us that ball and then move right down the field, it showed me something. It makes me feel good about this team."

The last four weeks had been bumpy for the Astros (7-2), as they lost back-to-back games - to Winnacunnet and Timberlane - for the first time since 2009. Sandwiched around those two were unexpectedly tough games against Merrimack and Dover.

The win over Exeter required Pinkerton to do somethings it normally doesn't do. Unable to run up the middle, the Astros rushed outside in the second half with Buccieri and Brett Datillo. They also called on quarterback Ryan Albrecht to throw quite a bit, and in the second half, he had success finding James Tulley, who had three key catches on the game-winning drive that all went for first downs.

"(Tulley) does something that you can't teach most kids to do," O'Reilly said. "He runs a crossing pattern at full speed. There was a kid on him, they knew he was getting it, he just ran right by him. As long as Ryan can get the ball in front ... unless you run some zone and drop underneath, I didn't think they'd be able to stay with him."

If the Astros are back on track remains to be seen. Pinkerton may be the top seed, but it now hosts No. 4 Timberlane (7-2) in Saturday's quarterfinals.

"They beat us last time," O'Reilly said. "We understood, it doesn't matter, next week, anybody can beat anybody. This is the best balance I've seen in this situation in years."

Division I notes

• Goffstown, which is the only undefeated team (9-0) left in the division, has already set a program record for wins in a season. The Grizzlies host a playoff game Saturday for the first time since 2011.
• Of the eight teams in the postseason, only three (Pinkerton, Nashua North, Exeter) are among the 10 biggest schools in the state.
• In the three seasons since the NHIAA switched to three divisions, 16 of the 20 teams currently in Division I have reached the postseason. The four that haven't are Winnacunnet, Dover, Merrimack and Manchester Memorial. Manchester West was also in D1 in 2013 and didn't reach the playoffs.
• Only two schools have been in all three years - Pinkerton and Exeter. Bishop Guertin, Bedford, Concord and Londonderry have been twice.

Division II notes

• Of the eight teams in the playoffs, only two were in the old Division III (Souhegan, Milford) while four were in Division IV (St. Thomas, Windham, Kennett, Lebanon) and two were in Division V (Monadnock, Kearsarge).
• After making the postseason in the same season every year from 2004-10, Souhegan and Milford are in the playoffs together for just the second time since 2011. This will be the third time the teams have met in the playoffs and first since 2009. Souhegan has won all three meetings.
• Windham and Kennett are the only teams that have made the postseason in every year since the switch to three divisions. Milford, St. Thomas, Kearsarge and Monadnock are making their second appearance each.
• In all, 13 of the 21 teams have made an appearance in the postseason, while Pelham made the playoffs in 2013 while it was in Division III.