Pinkerton powers way past Salem, into D1 football championship game

DERRY – The Pinkerton Academy football team may have lost three straight games to end the regular season, but the defending Division I champion still entered the playoffs with a lot of confidence with the knowledge it'd finally be healthy.

With the rash of injuries behind them, the Astros are back to where they belong.

Third-seeded Pinkerton caused five turnovers while junior running back Brady Spellman churned out 116 yards on 16 carries during Friday night’s 28-0 semifinal victory over No. 7 Salem at Memorial Field.

Pinkerton (8-3) lost to Andover (Mass.), Manchester Memorial and Nashua South by a total of 14 points. The Astros then opened the postseason with last week’s 34-6 quarterfinal win over No. 6 Windham.

“We had difficulties, we had injuries, but we still only lost those games by a hair,” Spellman said. “The whole team got healthy and we knew we had a chance. We all put in the work with the scheme and the results are here now.”

Pinkerton’s title defense culminates next Saturday at Stellos Stadium in Nashua against top-seeded Bedford (11-0) in the Division I championship game. The Bulldogs advanced with a 35-21 win over No. 4 South (9-3).

“We were missing numerous people on both sides of the ball; we were decimated by injuries. We played three very good teams and we barely lost to them,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “So it really wasn’t like what’s going on? We understood why. We’ve got our people back. Now we’ve just got to get better.”

Spellman ignited Pinkerton’s second drive when he followed a 17-yard run with a 20-yard reception from quarterback Aiden McDonald (3 for 4, 89 yards). Ryson Michaud finished off the drive four plays later with a 3-yard scoring run to give Pinkerton a 7-0 with 5:35 left in the first quarter.

That was the first big moment of Michaud’s first half, as he returned an interception of Salem quarterback Van Mason 40-plus yards down to Salem’s 23-yard line. Joseph Osanya then ripped off a 19-yard touchdown run to give Pinkerton a 14-0 lead with 8:01 left in the second quarter.

Osanya added a 2-yard scoring run to close out the game’s scoring early in the fourth quarter.

“We were definitely communicating at the beginning of the (interception play), we knew it was coming,” Michaud said. “I saw the ball, it got tipped and I ran down to about the 20-yard line. Two plays later, we scored a touchdown.”

Michaud’s next key play came after Pinkerton recovered a fumble by Aidan Shikrallah. McDonald connected with Michaud up the middle for a 50-yard touchdown pass to give Pinkerton a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

“We came in here with energy from the start and we just had to come out and show them how smash-mouth football works,” Michaud said. “We just had to come out here and play our game. I trust my teammates, they trust me. We trust our coaches, they trust us and that’s all we need.”

Salem coach Steve Abraham was disappointed with Friday’s result, but that didn’t take away from how his team responded from a 2-3 start to the season. Salem (8-4) won six straight games, including victories over No. 10 Portsmouth-Oyster River in the first round and a quarterfinal upset of No. 2 Memorial.

“We played really good defense and moved the ball, but we had penalties and turnovers and you can’t do that against a championship team,” Abraham said. “I’m so proud of this team. We had a sling of injuries and it would’ve been easy at 2-3 to fold it up. Instead, we won six in a row and we earned the right to be here.”