Pinkerton football's success in 2017 a product of last season's struggles

When talking about all the players he can put in the offensive backfield, Pinkerton Academy football coach Brian O'Reilly almost runs out of adjectives.

The Astros had six different ball carriers in the first half of Friday night's 61-19 win over Nashua North, and none of them finished the game with more than six carries.

Five of the six had at least 30 yards rushing, with quarterback Aiden Goujon the only one who didn't, although the junior did have a rushing touchdown among his two carries. Goujon might have had to do more legwork, but given the stable of backs to hand off to, it wasn't needed.

Not when Ty Hicks rushes for three touchdowns and 92 yards on five carries and Terrell Hicks goes for an even hundred and two scores on six carries. Throw in another 94 yards and a touchdown by Gennaro Marra and 43 yards and a score from Gannon Fast, and the Astros rushing attack looks like an unstoppable monster.

"It is very hard to defend," O'Reilly said of the plethora of backs other teams have to try to stop. "When you have a power runner who also can break tackles and accelerate, that’s hard (to stop). Ty has that ability. Our fullbacks, Terrell and Gannon Fast, run hard. (Fast) is more of a power runner than his dad was, but we’ve got another year with him. Mara is good athlete."

That wasn't the case a year ago, when Pinkerton had one of its worst seasons in more than a decade, going 4-5 and missing the postseason for the first time since 2002. But there were things going on during that season, that the outside world didn't see or hear much about, that have turned things around for the Astros this year.

"That’s a by-product of the pain and suffering that we went through last year," O'Reilly said. "We were a growing team last year with no seniors or juniors. We played a whole bunch of sophomores and got our heads handed to us more often than not. They picked up game experience. They went through it last year. It helps that we don’t favor one."

Pinkerton (5-1) got off to a fast start, blowing out Alvirne and Nashua South to open the season with two straight wins. But after a 35-20 loss to Salem - in a game O'Reilly says didn't feel as close as the final score - the Astros had to decide which way they wanted the 2017 season to go.

After falling behind late in the first half, Pinkerton tried to utilize its passing game a little bit more to try to catch Salem in the second half, and instead, the deficit grew. O'Reilly wondered if perhaps his team and coaching staff had tried to throw the ball too much at that point.

"We decided right then and there, we were going to run the ball down people’s throats or we can’t be in the playoffs," he said. "We can’t be in the playoffs if we can’t win. We don’t want to be in it. Our offense has been on fire."

Pinkerton will finish the season against Timberlane, Keene and Merrimack - teams that are a combined 5-13 - but unless Salem slips up and loses a couple of games down the stretch, the Astros are likely to be going on the road for the quarterfinals.

The Astros host Timberlane (2-4) at 7 p.m. on Friday in their final home game of the season.