Running game picks up where it left off for Pinkerton football

As the score got closer during Thursday night's season-opener for the Pinkerton Academy football team, at no point did Brian O'Reilly start to panic.

In order for Windham to complete its comeback, it was going to have to stop the Astros offense, specifically the running game, and to that point, the Jaguars hadn't been able to consistently do that.

Pinkerton had seven possessions during its 34-21 win over Windham and scored on four of them, and that doesn't include the kickoff the Astros returned for a touchdown.

The other three? They ended with a turnover on downs on the first drive of the game, a punt from Windham's 39-yard line after Pinkerton was already up 13-0, and the final possession of the game.

The Jaguars weren't going to recover every onside kick and only had so much time to run the ball on offense.

"They had us on our heels defensively with what they did, but they could never stop us on offense," O'Reilly said. "They only made us get rid of the ball once and that was the difference.

"I was kind of happy they were giving the ball to Tiger An. They kept getting first downs, but they were on fourth-and-1 and fourth-and-2. When we’re up two scores, they keep that clock rolling, that’s fine."

An, the Jaguars senior running back, had 66 of his 128 rushing yards after halftime, but needed 17 carries to do so.

On the other side, Pinkerton had three running back go for over 90 yards, as the Astros ran for 337 yards and an average of 7.5 yards per carry. Caden Michaud led the way with 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground - and had the score on special teams - while Ryan Catineau added 99 yards and three scores and Matt Morrison had 91 yards.

"The ground game was amazing," Michaud said. "When you’re able to run the ball with three really good running backs, we all have different running styles, so when all of us our clicking, it’s just hard to stop.

"It was really hard to run outside in the first half and Ryan Catineau took advantage. He is a tank. He is really hard to bring down. He thrived and stepped up huge."

While Michaud and Morrison had opportunities to carry the ball last season, Catineau not only played behind Cole Yennaco a year ago, the senior had to tweak his running style.

"Ryan came to us from the (Derry) Wolverines as a freshman and he was always the biggest kid on the team, but he ran standing up," O'Reilly said. "I probably threatened him his first two years here, if I did it once I did it 50 times, I’m going to make you an offensive guard because you have no idea how to run as a fullback.

"Even last year, a little bit in the beginning, it was straight up and you’ve got to stop doing that. Coming into this year, it’s his job to lose. Now he runs like a fullback."

And it doesn't hurt that the trio of backs is running behind an experienced offensive line that includes seniors Ryan Placey, Adam Day, Marcos Centeno, Luke DeLangie and Joseph Packowski.

"That was the thing we knew we had coming back was an experienced line," O'Reilly said. "You don’t have to have holes, you have to have momentum pushing forward and we thought we were going to be set for that."

That momentum frustrated the Jaguars at times because it led to gains even when they had a defensive player in the right position.

"When we had players there, their kids would break a tackle," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "Our guys played technically very good, but when the down and distance isn’t in your favor, things are going to happen."

Byrne felt there were two plays in the first half that went against Windham that could have changed the game if they went the other way.

"We always know our first half is going to have a few snags, they just can’t be turnovers or devastating calls," he said. "The problem was, we had two of those. We had a turnover in their territory and then we had a touchdown called back. Those were big."

After stopping Pinkerton on its opening drive, the Jaguars looked like they were going to move the ball on the ground. On third-and-4 from the Astros' 49, An picked up a first down, but Pinkerton's Ben Quintiliani got his hand on the ball to rip it free and Michaud recovered.

That led to the first of Catineau's touchdown runs to give Pinkerton a 7-0 lead. Windham appeared to have answered on the next play, as An raced 75 yards to the end zone, but the play was called back on a hold against the Jaguars.

Although Windham ended up picking up a first down, it eventually had to punt and the Astros scored on the ensuing drive.

"The problem was those mistakes weren’t just punts," Byrne said. "There were two big ones. And we get the ball in the second half. Two scores, or one score, is manageable. When you’re down by three scores, you’ve got work to do."

Pinkerton is at home for the second week in a row, when it hosts Alvirne at 7 p.m. on Friday. Windham will have its first home game at 2 p.m. Saturday, when Malden Catholic comes to town.