Pinkerton football stays undefeated with thrashing of Nashua North

DERRY - The Pinkerton Academy defense pitched a shutout and the offense steamrolled Nashua High School North in Friday night's 51-0 victory.

The Astros piled up 399 yards on the ground, scoring seven touchdowns, while giving up just 59 yards to the Titans and held them to just four first downs.

Yes, there was a lot for Astros coach Brian O'Reilly to like after his team moved to 6-0 on the season.

"We played very well in the first half on both sides of the ball," O'Reilly said. "We did what we needed to do. The other running backs ran very well. We tried to stay away from TJ (Urbanik), except for early in the game when we tried to establish what we do."

Urbanik got his yards - 84 and a touchdown on seven carries - but Peter Cyr led the way with 87 yards and three touchdowns on four carries. Jack Hanaway added 67 yards rushing and a touchdown while Matt Newman and Matt Allard each had a touchdown in the second half.

Defensively, Pinkerton got two sacks and an interception from Justin Poitras, all in the first quarter, and each one ended a North possession.

A week after rushing for almost 300 yards, North (2-4) struggled to move the ball. Max Fay led the Titans with 34 yards on the ground and Connor Baldassaro added 17 yards, but no one else had more than 11 yards. Colby Gunter was 3 of 6 passing, but for minus-1 yard.

"We put a game plan in place and we tried to do things that we thought would help," North coach Jason Robie said. "They countered that pretty well. We're a run-the-football team and we tried to do some stuff that we thought would be more successful, but it didn't work."

North's first drive ended on an interception by Poitras to give Pinkerton a first down at the Titans' 38-yard line. It looked like the Titans' defense might hold, but on third-and-11, Urbanik raced 21 yards for a touchdown.

On its next possession, North faced a third-and-3 from its 24, but Gunter was dropped by Poitras for a 10-yard loss and the Titans had to punt. The Astros again took over at the North 38, and four plays later, Cyr scored on a 5-yard run.

Poitras sacked Gunter again for a 10-yard loss on North's third drive, and eventually, the Titans had to punt. A 28-yard return by Urbanik set up Hanaway's 20-yard scoring run and it was 22-0 Pinkerton with 2:33 left in the first quarter.

"The scary thing is, you know what they're going to run," Robie said. "You try to come up with something to stop it, and I thought we had a manageable plan, but they're just big and fast and we had no answers."

Pinkerton scored on its first three drives, and five of its first six to lead 37-0 at halftime.

The Astros will try to remained undefeated next Friday at Timberlane, while North plays next Saturday against Bishop Guertin.