Portsmouth-Oyster River keeps playoff hopes intact with comeback win against Dover

DOVER - Many times Friday it felt like the wind was sucked right out of the Portsmouth-Oyster River High School football team's sails.

Moments of brilliance were followed by others the ClipperCats would simply want to forget, which made it a flip of the coin on whether the team would stand victorious by night's end.

Fortunately POR landed on the positive side of things during crunch time to grab a much-needed 29-28 win over Dover in Division I East action.

The ClipperCats (5-2) let an 11-point lead slip away midway through the fourth quarter before quarterback Will Hindle hit Brandon Park for a go-ahead 16-yard score with 2:27 to play. Portsmouth's defense followed things up by forcing an equally-important turnover on downs on the ensuing Dover drive to cap the dramatic win.

POR coach Brian Pafford watched his team scratch and claw while losing two-way players throughout the night, but ultimately felt good about his crew's chances when the game was on the line.

"What I was thinking was we just have to keep going and going. It was just a gut check," Pafford said.

The triumph also sets up a de facto playoff game for the ClipperCats next week against Exeter as both teams are in must-win mode with a postseason berth at stake.

Two scores in a 30-second span for Dover (3-3) in the fourth quarter appeared to doom POR. A backwards pass from Darian Lopez-Sullivan to Brady McInnis then went from McInnis to Brett Davis for 26-yard touchdown to cap the quick scoring blitz seemed too shocking to overcome. The ClipperCats proved otherwise, marching 65 yards and getting one of Hindle's best throws of the night on a crisp out route that Park was able finish just inside the pylon.

"All week we practiced for the pass. We just went through everything we had in the pass game along with our go-to stuff," Hindle said. "Coaches put their confidence and I put mine in the offensive line and the receivers. Everybody stepped up when they needed to, which allowed me to do the same and make the throw we needed. That's just how it all works."

Hindle has been better known for his legs thus far this season, but the throw to Park was just part of a complete showcase through the air Friday. The senior finished 5 for 9 for 98 yards and two touchdowns. A 43-yard heave to Charlie Pasqualoni and 23-yard dart to Payton Robinson for a score on back-to-back plays in the second quarter were other examples of Hindle's sneaky-good throwing of the ball.

"The fact is that he's just hot and cold. There are some days he is just spot on and others I'd like to see him run instead of waiting for guys to get open," Pafford said of Hindle, who also ran for 83 yards and a touchdown. "He was money (Friday) though. Being a relative unknown for New Hampshire football, and not being a quarterback since he was in fourth grade, he's constantly learning every week. (Friday) he did the job."

Max Lalime was a force to be reckoned with too for the ClipperCats, highlighted by a 53-yard touchdown run his team needed early in the fourth quarter on a play following a 10-yard holding penalty that posed one of the self-induced threats to POR's chances. Lalime finished with 136 yards rushing.

"We run a lot to the short side, but also run a lot of outside stuff," Lalime said. "That spread the defense a little bit while the line had just a perfect blocking sequence that opened up the middle for us. There was this huge hole from it all and I just took it."

Lopez-Sullivan remained the dual threat he's been advertised as for Dover, rushing for 137 yards while throwing for 155 and two scores to go with an interception by POR's Ethan Yu that set up Lalime's touchdown. While impressive, Lopez-Sullivan went through dry spells throwing the ball, including a handful of easy drops, while amassing much of his rushing output on a 64-yard scamper that set up a touchdown pass to Jacob Bernier.

The ability to contain Lopez-Sullivan's dynamic play, including forcing four consecutive incompletions to turn Dover over on its final drive, simply came with patience on the part of the Portsmouth defense.

"We keyed Darian a lot. Whether it's going inside or outside, we just wanted to contain," said Lalime, who was charged with quarterback spy assignments against Lopez-Sullivan much of the night. "Our line did great handling the front to slow him down and force a decision. We made some pretty good reads, which kind of turned out to be make or break for us."