Paquette leads St. Thomas football to comeback win over Alvirne

DOVER - Alvirne quarterback Kyle Gora ended the season of the St. Thomas Aquinas High School football team with a touchdown run in the final minute of last year’s Division II semifinals.

A role reversal came via St. Thomas’ new quarterback in Saturday afternoon’s rematch.

St. Thomas junior Cam Paquette survived a lackluster majority of the game to persevere in the Saints’ final drive. Paquette completed 4 of 6 passes, including a 5-yard touchdown pass to Adam Stewart with 2:42 left in the fourth quarter to lift the Saints to a 13-12 Division II victory.

“This is almost a new rivalry with Alvirne coming from last year to this year," St. Thomas coach Dave Bryant said. “We know this is going to be a hard game coming into this and we relish it. I can’t say more about how this team came together.”

Gora rushed for a game-winning, 6-yard touchdown with 24 seconds left in regulation to lift Alvirne (1-1) to a 22-19 victory in last year’s semifinals. On Saturday, Gora got off to a promising start by engineering a 15-play, 69-yard drive that he ended with a 12-yard touchdown on third-and-goal to give the Broncos a 6-0 lead with 5:42 left in the first quarter.

Gora then added an 80-yard run late in the first quarter, ended by a touchdown-saving tackle at the St. Thomas 10-yard line by Noel Ouellette. The Saints would then stuff Gora on a keeper at the 1 on fourth down.

“I can’t talk enough about Noel Ouellette. He’s a senior on this team and he’s done nothing but lead,” Bryant said. “He chased him down, he’s the epitome of this team. He got this team going and it changed the mentality that we can beat these guys.”

“We failed to score on the half-yard line, and you can’t let a team like this hang around,” Alvirne coach Tarek Rothe said. “When you’re on the road against a very good football team, you can’t do it.

The Broncos extended their lead to 12-0 on Alex Giuffrida’s 1-yard touchdown plunge with 9:13 left in the second quarter, but it was tough sledding for Alvrine’s offense after that.

St. Thomas followed a week in which it allowed 382 yards in its season-opening 34-25 loss to Souhegan, by sacking Alvirne eight times, forcing two turnovers and limiting the Broncos to 180 yards. The sacks dropped Gora’s rushing totals to 82 yards on 22 carries.

“We had guys coming hard from the outside and we were weren’t letting anybody in,” St. Thomas linebacker Hunter Lassard said. “We weren’t let anybody get up field, and we always kept an eye on (Gora).”

After missing last week with an injury, Lessard was welcomed back on both sides of the ball, after St. Thomas had 21 rushing yards last week. Lassard ground out 95 yards on 26 carries and caught 6-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter to send St. Thomas into halftime trailing 12-6.

Despite the loss to Souhgean last week, Paquette thrived in his debut by completing 31 of 54 passes for 335 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. On Saturday, that severely dwindled to an 11-for-30, 69-yard, two-interception effort. That was due in large part to Alvirne double-teaming Will MacLean, who caught nine passes for 119 yards and three touchdowns last week. MacLean caught only one ball for 14 yards before he was forced out with what is believed to be a minor ankle injury suffered early in the fourth quarter.

Paquette completed a 29-yard pass to Cooper Blomstrom early on St. Thomas’ final drive, but he was eventually faced with a third-and-11 from Alvirne’s 14. Paquette rolled to left, tucked his shoulder and barreled his way to  a 12-yard gain down to Alvirne’s 2.

“It wasn’t the first thing I wanted to do, because obviously I’m supposed to throw the ball,” Paquette said. “It’s just that both corners were covering the guy and I got open grass and I had to run.”

After a negative pass play and two incompletions, Paquette was left with fourth-and-goal at Alvrine’s 5. Paquette took the shotgun snap, rolled to the right and found Stewart for the touchdown pass with 2:22 left in regulation.

“(Paquette) is an unbelievable kid. The more he believes in himself, the skies the limit for him,” Bryant said. “He kept his composure. After his second interception, I asked him what did he see and he knew what exactly happened. He takes the coaching, applies the lessons learned, and it ended up getting us a win. I can’t ask for much more from a quarterback.”

St. Thomas travels to Sanborn (0-2) next week, while Alvirne hosts Souhegan (2-0).