Pelham stays at the top, beats Plymouth for D2 football championship

NASHUA - For the first time all season, the Pelham High School football team found itself in unfamiliar territory.

On the first play in the second quarter, Plymouth running back Tristan Patridge found a hole in the Pelham line and ran 8 yards into the end zone to put the Bobcats up 6-0 after the failed two-point conversion.

With that touchdown, No. 2 Plymouth became the first team all season to have a lead over top-seeded Pelham. Unfortunately for Plymouth, that lead lasted for only about a minute-and-half.

On Pelham’s next drive, Connor Travis broke free for a 57-yard touchdown, making the score 7-6. The Pythons were awake and didn’t look back as they completed the undefeated season, winning 35-6 in the Division II championship game at Stellos Stadium in Nashua.

It was the fourth-straight title for Pelham (11-0), and the Pythons' second since moving back up to D2. For running back Dom Herrling and his fellow seniors, it was a special moment to finish their careers on top.

"Just amazing," Herrling said. "My teammates and coaches I give all the respect to them. They did everything for me. All we had to do was put the game plan together and play how we play. And we did it."

Herrling was making big plays all around the field. He scored his first touchdown two minutes before halftime on a 14-yard run, then he followed that up with a 15-yard run halfway through the third quarter to put Pelham up 21-6. He finished with 95 rushing yards on 15 attempts. Travis finished just ahead of him with 98 yards on six attempts.

Herrling also played a pivotal role in the secondary on defense. With Plymouth (10-2) in desperation mode and trying to air the ball down in the fourth quarter, Herrling picked off quarterback Luke Diamond on back-to-back drives to seal the game.

Pelham coach Tom Babaian could not have asked for anyone else to make that final play.

"Another big play by him," Babaian said. "He was great for his entire career."

Herrling and the rest of the secondary gave Diamond fits all day, limiting him to 2 of 19 passing attempts and 42 yards while intercepting him five times.

Fellow seniors Memphis Patterson and Diego Jimenez anchored the line that stuffed Plymouth’s running game all day. The Bobcats combined for 66 yards on 32 attempts.

"They are big and physical," Plymouth coach Chris Sanborn said of Pelham’s defense. "Memphis Patterson is the real deal. Their defense is their strength. That’s a good defense on all three levels."

The Bobcats entered the redzone down 21-6 as time expired in the third quarter, hoping to keep their title hopes alive. After three failed attempts to run the ball in from the 6-yardline, the Bobcats opted for the pass on fourth down. Diamond rolled out to his right and his pass was picked off in the endzone by Nolan Monette, killing Plymouth’s last hope to find the end zone one last time.

Pelham scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the first coming on a 1-yard sneak from quarterback Nick Muise. Running back Jake Ciulla closed the scoring on a 70-yard touchdown run to put Pelham up 35-6 with a few minutes left in the game.

The win marked Pelham’s 41st in a row, dating back to 2020 when they were in Division III. That mark is good enough for the third longest current winning streak in the country.

Even with the sustained success, Babaian felt people outside the program were not giving his team enough respect coming into the year.

"This feels really good," he said. "This is a big one for us. It caps off a year that people doubted us. People didn’t think it was the same team coming back. And we ran the board."

The win marks the end of an era for Pelham as they graduate 11 seniors, many of whom were big contributors such as Herrling, Patterson, Travis and Ciulla. While winning another championship was nothing new to this group, it felt big.

"It was so much more important to me as a senior and captain," Herrling said. "It means the world to me."