Pembroke football overcomes adversity to beat Hollis Brookline

PEMBROKE – Brian Gridley never knows what’s going to happen when things go bad for his Pembroke Academy football team.

There were plenty of downs for the Spartans on Saturday, but they responded better than their coach expected.

Pembroke had one touchdown called back on a hold, lost two first-half fumbles on Hollis Brookline’s side of the field and turned the ball over on downs three times in the second half in Cavaliers’ territory. Despite all that, the Spartans scored twice in the fourth quarter and defeated the Cavs 22-8 in a Division III game.

“Sometimes when things don’t go our way, I feel like we start to break apart and that’s when you need to come together,” Grindley said. “I challenged the kids to play smart, play fast and play physical. I knew the physical part would be there, but the smart part, being emotionally tough is what I wanted from this team. I thought we might fold like a house of cards and we actually came together.”

Brian Paradis gained 127 yards on 11 carries for Pembroke (1-1 in D-III, 1-1 overall), including a 52-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that broke an 8-8 tie. Gus Connolly added 100 yards on the ground on 17 carries and Zach Wiggin had a rushing touchdown.

As a team, the Spartans gained all of its 301 yards of offense on the ground and won the battle up front, according to HB coach Milt Robinson.

“They just physically beat us up,” Robinson said. “That’s all there was to it. We’ve got younger guys who don’t have the experience we’ve had in the past. Physically, we just got beat off the ball.”

The Cavs (1-1, 1-2) got a strong performance from Max Friedman, who had a team-high 60 yards rushing and completed 9 of 17 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown. But Friedman also threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter, the second of which Pembroke’s Adam Gelinas returned 25 yards for a touchdown that put the game away.

“He’s done a great job,” Robinson said. “I know he threw a couple of picks, but those were in dire situations where he has to throw up the ball. He’s tough. He runs the ball, he throws it, he plays defense. We need to get him some help.”

HB’s lone score came on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Friedman to Hunter Longland with 2:17 left in the first half. Nick Noval ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game 8-8, and that’s where it stood going into the fourth quarter.

Pembroke had a second-and-5 at HB’s 29-yard line early in the final frame, but eventually turned the ball over on downs. The Spartans’ defense forced the Cavs to punt and Pembroke got the ball back near midfield.

After Connolly picked up a yard on first down, Paradis took a handoff from Chris Cushing, bounced outside and raced down the far sideline 52 yards to put the Spartans on top with 6:56 left in the game. Paradis punched in the two-point conversion to make it 16-8.

“He ran the ball like he plays defense,” Gridley said of Paradis. “He’s a physical, strong kid, like a lot of our kids. Anyone of those guys could have run that ball behind our line.”

Connolly intercepted a pass by Friendman on HB’s next drive, and Pembroke looked like it was going to put the game away, moving to the Cavs’ 5. But the Spartans turned the ball over on downs at the 1.

Four plays later, it didn’t matter, as Gelinas stepped in front of a Friedman pass and returned it for another score with 32 seconds left.

“This one, we’ve got to put it in the rearview mirror,” Robinson said. “It’s a learning experience for our team because we’re not used to being in this situation. I’m interested to see how we respond.”