Pinkerton football stays hot, rolls to win over Alvirne (video)

DERRY - Tim Hersom has seen his Pinkerton Academy football teammates go for plenty of long touchdown runs.

During Saturday morning's game against Alvirne, the senior quarterback got his opportunity to do the same.

Midway through the second quarter, Hersom found some room to run, got to the second level and broke away from the Broncos' defense for a 55-yard touchdown. It was one of three touchdowns on the day for Hersom, as he and the Astros rolled to a 51-6 win over Alvirne in a Division I Central Conference game.

The score answered the Broncos' lone touchdown of the game and helped send Pinkerton (2-0) on the way to a comfortable win. The Astros held a 434-133 edge in yards, with 387 of those coming on the ground.

Hersom had 78 of those yards, with two rushing touchdowns while also completing 1 of 2 passes with a 15-yard touchdown to Landon Mackiernan. Despite that completion, it was the long touchdown run that stood out to the quarterback.

"I’m not used to running the ball, so that was exciting," Hersom said. "I cut it up and split two defenders and I could see their shadows behind me. As I was getting closer to the end zone, I couldn’t see them anymore and I knew I’d made it."

Caden Michaud added 98 yards and a touchdown on the ground and Ryan Catineau had 79 yards and a score. Matt Morrison also had 60 yards and returned a punt 95 yards for another score.

"From an offensive point of view, this is what we like to do, pound up inside, run around d outside, play-action passes," Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said. "Defensively, I thought we did a good job, with the one exception that was a blown something that allowed them to go. Those things happen.

"Special teams, what more can I say. That might be a school record punt return. Kick return was pretty good, too. What’s not to like (Saturday)?"

Alvirne got 118 yards and a touchdown rushing from Aiden Mills, as he scored on a 67-yard run in the second quarter that made it 24-6 Pinkerton with 6:30 to go until halftime. But the Broncos couldn't get much else going offensively, as they picked up just two first downs, both in the first half.

Shawn Boudreau had just 7 yards rushing and completed only 2 of 6 passes for 3 yards, as he was filling in at quarterback for Charlie Crawford.

"With the quarterback out (Saturday), the assumption was they weren’t going to be able to throw the ball well," O'Reilly said. "We still gave respect to it in case they did. It’s a tough situation when you lose the keys to your offense.

"If you’re in the spread offense, and you don’t have your quarterback all of a sudden, I’ve got to think that’s a bad thing. I can survive it in the wing-T. I don’t know how you survive it in the spread. We assumed they would have to run the ball and we were there for the most part."

Alvirne went three-and-out to start the game and the Broncos had Pinkerton facing a third-and-9 on its first possession. But Morrison took a pitch from Hersom and picked up 14 yards for a first down before Michaud went for 47 yards and a touchdown on the next play.

Hersom found the end zone on a 13-yard run on the next Astros possession to make it 14-0. Alvirne picked up a first down on its next drive, but stalled after a pair of false starts and had to punt.

And that's when Morrison struck, fielding the kick at his own 5-yard line, heading toward the home sideline and racing to the end zone to make it 21-0.

Peyton Harmony hit a 41-yard field goal on the next Pinkerton possession for a 24-0 lead. Hersom's touchdown pass to Mackiernan made it 38-6 at halftime and Catineau put the game in running time with a 25-yard touchdown run on the first drive of the second half.

Aiden McDonald found James Caruso for a 32-yard touchdown to round out the scoring in the third quarter.