Strong second half leads Sanborn football past Hollis Brookline

HOLLIS – For the second week in a row, John Welch’s halftime message to his Sanborn High School football team was the same.

The Indians again found themselves in a tight game Saturday, this time with Hollis Brookline, and Welch told his players if they played their kind of game, they’d come out on top.

Sanborn did just that, putting together two long touchdown drives and clamping down defensively on the Cavaliers to pick up a 21-7 win in a game between two Division II West Conference teams.

Zach Matthews led Sanborn (1-1) with 88 yards on the ground and Mike Rich and Kyle Olsen both ran for touchdowns in the second half, but it was the defense that made the difference. The Indians held HB (0-2) to just 31 yards after halftime

“I thought we executed real well,” Welch said. “We told them you’re in for a battle. That’s a good team. We had to play our football and execute and protect the football.”

John Morris completed 7 of 8 passes for 78 yards and threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Morton on Sanborn’s first possession. That came after a HB fumble gave the Indians a short field.

The Cavs turned the ball over twice in the first half, and had just two first downs in the second half, including none in the fourth quarter. They were also flagged for four personal fouls in the final 24 minutes.

“We came out with the intensity that we needed, it’s just that we allowed ourselves to beat ourselves because we weren’t focusing our energy in between the whistles,” HB coach Rich Bergskaug said. “We can’t have 60 yards of personal foul penalties in a half and expect to win. We played hard and we fought hard, it’s just that we have to minimize the mistakes.”

The first of those came on the game’s first drive. The Cavs faced a third-and-2 at midfield, but a miscommunication in the backfield left quarterback Austin Pigott unexpectedly with the ball, and he lost a fumble that Olsen recovered at the HB 40.

It looked like HB’s defense might make a stop, but on fourth-and-5, Morris hit Morton for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

“Any time you get a turnover, you want to move the ball and try to capitalize on it,” Welch said. “Our guys did it. The coaches had them prepared and they responded well and they played tough.”

The Cavs got on the board in the second quarter, putting together an 11-play, 75-yard drive to tie the game at 7 on Matt Ferenczhalmy’s 5-yard touchdown run.

After a three-and-out by Sanborn, HB got the ball back with 3:11 left in the first half and Pigott got the offense moving through the air. The Cavs moved over midfield thanks in part to a 20-yard pass to Joe Brooks and a 10-yard completion to Jason Van Coughnett.

But on first down at the Sanborn 40, another miscommunication led to another fumble recovered by Olsen.

“The line was trying to communicate and the quarterback was trying to communicate something to them and our center snapped it,” Bergskaug said. “It’s something else we have to iron out.”

Sanborn opened the second half with a nine-play drive that covered 61 yards and ended with a 4-yard touchdown run by Rich to make it 14-7.

HB answered by moving into Sanborn territory, but the drive stalled, and the Cavs turned it over on downs. A personal foul on HB put the Indians on the HB 42-yard line, and from there, Sanborn needed five plays to get in the end zone, this time on a 6-yard run by Olsen.

“Sanborn played a great game,” Bergskaug said. “They made some plays on defense and capitalized on our mistakes.”

HB will have its homecoming game on Sept. 21, as Monadnock comes to town for a 2 p.m. start. Sanborn returns home to host Pembroke, also on Sept. 21.