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# Rolling with what was working helped Pinkerton football find success
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/rolling-with-what-was-working-helped-pinkerton-football-find-success/
- Published: 2018-09-24T13:10:21.000Z
- Updated: 2018-09-24T13:10:21.000Z
- Description: The opening possession of Friday's Mack Plaque football game had everything fans have come to expect from a Pinkerton Academy drive. The Astros ran the ball seven times on that drive, gaining all 91 yards of the drive on the ground, including a 32-yard touchdown run by Gennaro Marra that gave Pinker
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, football, Londonderry, NH High School Sports Insider, Pinkerton, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

The opening possession of Friday's Mack Plaque football game had everything fans have come to expect from a Pinkerton Academy drive.

The Astros ran the ball seven times on that drive, gaining all 91 yards of the drive on the ground, including a 32-yard touchdown run by Gennaro Marra that gave Pinkerton the early lead on the way to a 34-14 win over Londonderry.

But running the ball wasn't what Pinkerton wanted to do on that possession. The game plan was to throw the ball, and that's what the Astros tried to do, attempting four passes, including three on first down.

All fell incomplete, leaving Pinkerton in some tough situations, but the offense was able to pick up the yardage it needed, including converting three third downs.

"We had a good game plan going in, and we didn’t execute it well," Pinkerton quarterback Aiden Goujon said. "That was mostly on my part. We’re a really good, multidimensional team, so we could fall back on the run when we needed to."

Goujon had a rough night statistically, completing just 2 of 12 passes for 39 yards, but the running game was there, as the Astros (4-0) rushed for 344 yards and five touchdowns, including one by the senior quarterback.

And despite the passing numbers, Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly had confidence to draw up a similar game plan again.

"I’ve got a three-year starting quarterback who can throw a mile," the coach said. "He was just off a little and he was as mad at himself as anything. Aiden is so good, he was off, not as far as his play-calling or running the offense."

Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon thought there was a chance Pinkerton might opt to throw against his defense, just not that early.

"We felt like that was the difference between (Pinkerton) and Salem," he said. "They’ll kill you with the pass. These guys don’t mind throwing the ball. (Goujon) is a good quarterback and he’s comfortable throwing the ball.

"It keeps us honest and keeps us from attacking downhill. He just missed a couple. We thought that if we’re making them throw the ball it’d be a great thing."

The two passes the Astros did complete turned out to be big. On Pinkerton's second touchdown drive, facing a fourth-and-8 at the Londonderry 33, Goujon connected with Marra for a 12-yard gain. Two plays later, Gannon Fast scored on an 8-yard run to make it 14-0 late in the first quarter.

Then, after the Pinkerton defense stopped Londonderry at it's 3-yard line, the Astros drove 97 yards in 15 plays, ending with 1-yard touchdown run by Goujon with 10 seconds left in the first half.

The drive likely wouldn't have gone anywhere if not for a 27-yard completion from Goujon to Marra that gave Pinkerton a first down at the Londonderry 17 with time winding down in the half.

"When we got the ball, I wasn’t thinking we were going to drive down the field," O'Reilly said. "That was a great catch by Gennaro on the post wheel. Once we got down there, it was this will be big going into halftime.

"There were some points there for the taking, especially early on. We knew they were going to come flying up in the secondary. We worked all week on putting the ball down deep. It didn’t work, but that’s OK. It certainly scared the heck out of them because they stayed back the rest of the game."