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# Portsmouth-Oyster River football ends skid with win over Winnacunnet
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/portsmouth-oyster-river-football-ends-skid-with-win-over-winnacunnet/
- Published: 2025-10-04T12:29:43.000Z
- Updated: 2025-10-04T12:29:43.000Z
- Description: PORTSMOUTH – After three straight losses, there was no sugarcoating the importance for the Portsmouth-Oyster River football team entering Friday night’s game against undefeated Winnacunnet High School. The ClipperCats played with that urgency and did exactly what they needed to do to spark a hopeful
- Author: Dan Doyon
- Tags: Division I, football, Portsmouth-Oyster River, slider, Winnacunnet, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

PORTSMOUTH – After three straight losses, there was no sugarcoating the importance for the Portsmouth-Oyster River football team entering Friday night’s game against undefeated Winnacunnet High School.

The ClipperCats played with that urgency and did exactly what they needed to do to spark a hopeful push towards the playoffs with an impressive 26-13 upset victory in Division I East Conference action on Tom Daubney Field.

Winnacunnet (4-1) came off a 31-21 victory over rival Exeter, while Portsmouth-Oyster River (2-3) halted a losing streak that came at the hands of Exeter, Manchester Memorial and Manchester Central.

“It was a must win,” Portsmouth senior quarterback Andy Brown said. “It was homecoming, there were a lot of people and we wanted to get back on track with this one and that’s what we did. The last few weeks we played close games that just didn’t go our way, but to come in (Friday) and win this game really up front was huge.”

Brown engineered the passing attack by completing 14 of 21 passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns, while Daniel Soler-Sala rushed for 108 yards on 21 carries.

Soler-Sala’s 27-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter tied the game at 7-7 heading into halftime. Winnacunnet opened the game’s scoring on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Sean Griffin to Jaxon McDonald (six catches, 109 yards) in the first quarter.

“We didn’t use anything for bulletin board material, we just said we were going to practice hard this week and we had a good week of practice,” Portsmouth coach Brian Pafford said. “I actually thought we could do well against their line if we played and we did. That’s the part of the team that is not dinged up and they did a real good job.”

Portsmouth-Oyster River forced Winnacunnet coach Ryan Francoeur to make the decision to go for it one 4th-and-2 on the opening drive of the second half from Winnacunnet’s 35-yard line.

The ClipperCats responded by stuffing fullback Thomas Lyons and capitalized on the short field in six plays. Soler-Sala highlighted the drive with runs of 11 and 10 yards to set a 5-yard touchdown pass from Brown to Henry Dorley to give Portsmouth-Oyster River a 14-7 lead 7:17 left in the third quarter.

“That was probably the turning point of the game and then we were able to go down and score,” Pafford said of the fourth-down stop. “It was huge. That was just guys up front pushing and they came up a yard short.”

Winnacunnet responded on the ensuing drive and moved the ball to the ClipperCats’ 30 following a 27-yard completion from Griffin to Brian McCown. Portsmouth-Oyster River squashed the drive when Griffin’s pass to Will Phillps on third-and-5 from the 15 was tipped by Cote Bellaud into the arms of Nash Conklin in the end zone.

The ClipperCats went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, but took advantage of Winnacunnet’s next turnover after Dom Mancini fumbled the ball away. Brown erased a second-and-25 following a personal foul with a 44-yard completion to Zach Hall (three catches, 92 yards) down to Winnacunnet’s 13.

“I let it fly and I trust the guys down field to make the catch,” Brown said.

Brown then found Kevin White for an 11-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth and added a 6-yard scoring pass to Van Gruner to give the ClipperCats a 26-7 lead midway through the quarter.

“Portsmouth played better than we did (Friday), especially in the second half,” Francouer said. “They took advantage of the opportunities we gave them. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot and made some uncharacteristic mistakes.”