Special teams lead Goffstown football past Bedford

GOFFSTOWN - Special teams can play a crucial role in a football game.

They're a big reason why the Goffstown High School football remains undefeated.

The Grizzlies got 20 points from their special teams Saturday, helping to lead them to a 27-21 win over Bedford in a Division I North Conference battle of undefeated teams.

Goffstown scored on a kickoff return and brought back a blocked punt for a touchdown, to go with two field goals from kicker Sam Heindenreich, to improve to 6-0 on the season and take control of the conference.

"Special teams made big plays for us," Goffstown coach Justin Hufft said. "Bedford's defense did a nice job keeping us in check on offense. It was a struggle for us. We were able to make one more play and come out on top. Give a lot of credit to Bedford, they gave us a tough game."

Franklin Castillo Diaz returned a kickoff 86 yards after the Grizzlies used some misdirection to get him the ball, and Ian Routhier returned a punt, which had been blocked by Connor Bourque, 12 yards for another touchdown that gave Goffstown a 24-14 lead going into halftime.

Bourque also had a 4-yard touchdown run on the final play of the first quarter, but finished with just 66 yards on 18 carries. Bedford (5-1) held Goffstown to 73 yards in the first half, and limited Grizzlies quarterback Casey Gervais to just 27 yards on 12 carries.

The Bulldogs moved the ball well in the first half, picking up 190 yards, but had just 86 after halftime. Nick Leahy had 63 yards rushing and a touchdown, while Connor Robert added 75 yards and a score, which made it a six-point game with 10 minutes to play.

"It was a good game," Bedford coach Derek Stank said. "It was what we expected. We expected to see two teams come out here, execute, move the ball, the defense were going to make plays and they did. They came out on top."

Goffstown got on the board on its first drive, as Heindenreich was good on a 45-yard field goal with 7:25 left in the quarter. Bedford answered the score on its next drive, as Robert hit Shahrukh Hussain over the middle and Hussain broke a couple of tackles to go 55 yards for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead.

The Grizzlies came back with an 18-play, 70-yard drive on which they converted two third downs and two fourth downs, leading to Bourque's 4-yard touchdown run. Bedford retook the lead with a methodical drive of its own, going up 14-10 on Leahy's 3-yard scoring jaunt.

And then came the kickoff return. Andrew Duval fielded the kick and handed it off to Justin Wanner, who had his back to the Bedford coverage team. Wanner faked a handoff to Bourque and then gave it to Castillo Diaz, who took it the rest of the way, while getting a couple of blocks from Bourque along the way.

"We didn't actually execute that one really well, but Frankie got the ball and did some Frankie stuff," Hufft said. "He's pretty electric. We hadn't been saving it. We haven't had a lot of kick returns, in all honesty, until the second half, so we hadn't had reps with the first team. We've got some explosive guys back there, so we were hoping we could make a play there."

Bedford couldn't pick up a first down on its next drive, and Bourque busted through the line on fourth down to block Cooper Anibal's punt. Routhier scooped the ball up at the 12-yard line and ran into the end zone untouched.

"We saw something on film that we thought we could exploit and the kids came through and made the play," Hufft said. "We talk about not falling on a blocked punt in the back field. The kids executed and did those couple of things really well."

Heindenreich added a 35-yard field goal on Goffstown's first possession of the second half to make it 27-14, and the Grizzlies defense appeared poised to take over the game. The teams traded punts and Goffstown pinned Bedford back at its own 9-yard line, but the Bulldogs were able to go 91 yards in 13 plays, scoring on Robert's 11-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to six with 10 minutes remaining.

After Goffstown picked up a couple of first downs, Bedford's defense held and the Bulldogs got the ball back at their own 40 with 7:29 remaining. Leahy ran for 14 yards on first down, but Bedford couldn't get any further, and Stank used his last timeout with his team facing a fourth-and-9 with 5:51 to play.

"We were originally thinking of going for it and it was timeout to think of the play we were going to use for that," he said. "Talking with other coaches, we decided we were going to rely on our defense. Unfortunately, they were able to drive down the field and eat up most of our time."

A good return by Duval on the punt gave Goffstown the ball at its 40 and after using all but 24.6 seconds, the Grizzlies punted the ball back to Bedford. A great play by Goffstown's Peyton Bickford to keep the ball out of the end zone put the Bulldogs at their own 4-yard line.

Bedford was able to hit on a couple of passes underneath, but the clock ran out before the Bulldogs could get to midfield.

"That was a great play by Peyton Bickford," Hufft said. "He made a great play to keep it out (of the end zone) and then we hustled down there. Somewhat fortunate that the funny shaped ball takes different bounces and it bounced our way."