Pinkerton football runs over Londonderry on the way to victory

DERRY - In front of a crowd of six thousand fans, the Pinkerton Academy football team had two feature performers.

First, there was halfback Ty Hicks who ran for 279 yards and three touchdowns. Then there were the boys in the trenches who imposed their will on the Londonderry defensive front.

The combination led the Astros to a 35-7 win over the Lancers - Pinkerton's 19th in a row against it's Mack Plaque rival - in Division I South Conference action.

"We pretty much ran one formation the entire game," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said of his linemen. "If this team is the team I think they are they will control the line of scrimmage.” And that is exactly what happened throughout the game.

On Pinkerton’s opening drive, the Astros (3-1) fumbled deep into Londonderry territory. However, two plays later the Lancers (3-1) threw an interception giving Pinkerton favorable field position. The Astros took advantage of the short field with a 7-yard TD run by Gannon Fast.

Following Pinkerton’s first touchdown, it created another turnover, and once again had the ball with great field position. This time the Astros finished on the ground with a Terrell Hicks touchdown run.

Londonderry had a total of three turnovers in the first half, something the Lancers hadn't done in their first three games.

“Before today we have only turned the ball over once all season," Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. "Then in this game we come out with three first half turnovers. That is not what we do and it's hard to win with those mistakes.”

After the Terrell Hicks touchdown, it was time for Ty Hicks, his brother, to take over the game. With 2:08 left in the half, Ty Hicks had a 72-yard touchdown run pushing the score to 21-0 at half.

This touchdown was a serious blow to Londonderry, which just came off a drive that had great field position from a blocked punt and had managed to string together few first downs, but was crippled by the Lancers' third first half turnover.

On the first play of the second half, Ty Hicks had an 83-yard touchdown run and shortly thereafter ran one in from 33 yards out.

“This was the best game of my career at Pinkerton," Ty Hicks said. "I had a little bit of extra juice because it was the rivalry and I think that made a difference.”

Hicks helped lead a Pinkerton offense that gained all 450 of its yards on the ground.

"Ty is our best running back when he wants to be, he played like that (Friday)," O'Reilly said. "My goal was four hundred yards on the ground (Friday) and I believe we succeeded doing that.”

In the loss, the Lancers tacked on a late touchdown with a 3-yard TD run by backup QB Evan Cormier.