Pinkerton football opens year with victory over Windham (video)

DERRY - The Windham High School football team just spent almost nine minutes of the second half making Thursday night's opener against Pinkerton Academy a game again.

And in seconds, Caden Michaud ended it.

Down three scores at halftime, the Jaguars cut the Astros' lead to six points with just over eight minutes remaining. With Windham having already recovered one onside kick, Pinkerton sent out its hands return unit, expecting another.

Instead, Seamus Ross sent the kick deep to Michaud, who made one player miss, got a block late from teammate Ben Wolthers, and outran everyone else for a 92-yard kickoff return, locking up a 34-21 Astros win to start the Division I season.

"I saw the ball coming in the air and I thought maybe Matt (Morrison) is going to take this," Michaud said. "Then it started to drift and I thought ‘well, no, I’m taking this.’ So I ran up the middle first, made one cut, and there was a seam. It was just the kicker and I broke the tackle. Ben Wolthers chipped the kid for as long as I needed it and it was perfect."

Michaud also had a 4-yard touchdown on the ground in the first quarter and finished with 104 yards rushing. Ryan Catineau added 99 yards and three touchdowns and Morrison had another 91 yards as Pinkerton (1-0) ran for 337 on 45 attempts, averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

"The game plan was to stretch them out," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "We didn’t even block the corners. We never expected to get around the outside and down the sidelines. All we were trying to do was to get the inside people to run and to loosen them up inside, and it worked pretty well."

Of Pinkerton's seven drives, only one ended with a punt and another a kneel down to end the game.

"They did what we were hoping to do earlier, if you can spread the defense out," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "The kids earned it. When we had players there, their kids would break a tackle. Our guys played technically very good, but when the down and distance isn’t in your favor, things are going to happen."

Windham (0-1) got 128 yards and a touchdown rushing from Tiger An, as the Jaguars found the end zone on their first three drives of the second half, trimming a 20-0 Pinkerton lead at halftime to 27-21 with 8:04 to play.

Thanks to an 18-play drive, on which Windham converted three fourth downs, and the recovered onside kick, the Jaguars had possession for 8:55 minutes straight, cutting the lead to six on a 19-yard touchdown run by Cameron Williams (9 carries, 44 yards).

After the play, Michaud got an earful from an assistant coach on the sideline, before going out for the kickoff.

"I was just not being a leader," the senior said. "It’s my job to run this team, I’m a captain, and I wasn’t doing my job. I needed to be put back into my place. If I got chewed out, I’ve got to get it back. I’ve got to do what’s right for the team, and at that point it was returning a kick for a touchdown and not giving up."

It was the kind of response O'Reilly expected to see from one of his captains.

"That is all on him and that’s his athleticism," the coach said. "You let Caden and Matt in the open field, you’re going to have problems. You’re putting nine guys up here for what you expect and you’ve got two guys back there covering, I don’t know what the square footage is, but it’s a lot.

"Normally, it’s just get possession of the ball, and if you have to, fall on it. But once he made the first cut, I thought this could look good."

It was the Astros offense that looked good in the first half, as they rushed for 208 yards in the first two quarters. Catineau rumbled in from 2 yards out to give Pinkerton a 7-0 lead with 6:24 left in the first and Michaud added another score with 1:29 to go in the frame.

Windham tried to convert a fourth-and-2 from its own 35-yard line with 3:29 left in the second quarter, but Pinkerton's defense stopped An short of the first down. Four plays later, Catineau caught a pass from Tim Hersom for 11 yards, setting up his own 12-yard touchdown run on the next play to make it 20-0.

The Jaguars got on the board on their first drive of the second half. On fourth-and-8 at the Pinkerton 38, William Depietro found Benjamin Roy for a 38-yard touchdown to make it 20-7.

But the Astros responded with a nine-play, 65-yard drive, going back up three scores on an 8-yard run by Catineau. Michaud ran for 48 yards on the drive, setting up the score with a 19-yard run.

Windham answered with its 18-play drive, turning what looked like an easy opening-night win for Pinkerton into a close contest.

"To our guys, awesome job," Byrne said. "You’ve got high school guys who could quit, and it’d be easy, it’s Week 1, we’ve got a whole season left. We got that roll going and we’re right in it."