Run game lifts Timberlane football to win over Souhegan

PLAISTOW - The Timberlane Regional High School football team went into Friday night's non-division game against Souhegan with a simple plan.

That plan never changed. Not when the Owls went down by two touchdowns early, and not when one of their key players implementing that plan went down.

Timberlane relied on its running game to come back in the first half and to eat up clock in the second, as the Owls held off the Sabers for a 21-20 win.

Liam Corman ran for 138 yards on 23 carries and Eddie DiGiulio had 99 yards and a touchdown in the first half, before leaving the game with an injury just before halftime, to help the Owls amass 277 yards on the ground.

"Give it to Eddie and Liam and see if they could make plays for us," Timberlane coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "I thought were physical up front, particularly early in the game. Most of the game we were physical up front.

"They started sending guys after, that gave us some problems. We were hoping we’d be able to run the ball with some physicality in between the tackles and we were able to do that for most of the night."

Jeremy Mlocek was just 3 of 9 passing for 33 yards, but two of those were touchdown passes of 13- and 12-yards to Jacob Basnett, capping a pair of long drives that featured nothing but running plays to that point.

The second of those scoring receptions accounted for the only points of the second half and came on the opening possession. Timberlane (2-2 overall, 1-2 in Division I) went 55 yards in eight plays and took the lead on the extra point by Liam Kelly.

Souhegan (3-1, 3-0 in D2) got the ball back with 2:43 remaining in the game on its own 35-yard line, looking to drive down for the winning score. The Sabers made it to the Owls' 33, but on second down, Cameron Nazarian intercepted a pass by Romy Jain with 1:02 left to clinch the win for Timberlane.

"We knew going in this was going to be all the way down to the fourth quarter," Souhegan coach Robin Bowkett said. "That’s how it worked. We had a couple of opportunities we’re going to wish we had back.

"I’m super proud of them. They battled through a ton of adversity and had a chance to win it. Our defense got the ball back and we had some chances there on offense."

Jain was 13 of 28 for 240 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, with a handful of incompletions coming on dropped passes in the first half. Souhegan also had trouble running the ball against Timberlane at times, finishing with 74 yards.

JJ Bright caught three passes for 109 yards and a touchdown, a 57-yard catch-and-run that came on the game's second play.

"He's very good," Fitzgerald said of Bright. "They break that first one on the pass and he breaks it. He looks the part, for sure. He can make you miss in space, but I thought our guys did well tackling, for the most part."

Bright also had 57 yards on the ground and Cole Manning added six catches for 82 yards and a score.

The Sabers also lost tight end/linebacker Brayden Hickman to injury on their third offensive play.

"Hickman went down early, that’s going to be tough because he’s a dynamic player for us in all three phases," Bowkett said. "We threw guys into the fire, who maybe hadn’t had many reps there, and we’re telling them what to do. Next dude up, we’ve got to roll. We’re starting to get a little banged up but our guys battled through and that’s what it’s going to take to win these tough games."

Souhegan scored on that drive, going 69 yards in 12 plays, capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Jain. The junior then connected with Manning for the two-point conversion for a 14-0 lead with 3:50 left in the first quarter.

Timberlane answered with an 11-play, 65-yard drive, of which the first 10 plays were runs. Facing fourth-and-10 on the second play of the second quarter, Mlocek found Basnett for a 13-yard touchdown.

Jain and Manning put Souhegan back up two scores, connecting on a 15-yard touchdown with 4:13 left in the half, but Timberlane blocked the extra point to keep it 20-7.

The Owls answered with a 6-play, 50-yard drive, getting a 6-yard scoring run from DiGiulio to make it 20-14, and that's where it stood at halftime. Timberlane went ahead to start the second half and held off Souhegan the rest of the way.

"We were able to control some possession," Fitzgerald said. "Didn’t finish all of our drives with scores, but we were able to keep their offense off the field a little bit. They’re a dangerous team offensively, but our defense, particularly in the second half, was very good."