Timberlane football stifles Milford to win D2 championship

When the Timberlane Regional High School football team faced Milford in the final regular season of the year, the Owls struggled in the first half to slow down the Spartans rushing attack.

It was the only game all year in which the Owls trailed at halftime, and when the teams met again for Saturday's Division II championship game, Timberlane had learned its lesson.

The Owls shut down the Spartans' rushing attack, holding them to just 75 yards on the day, and behind its own strong rushing attack, No. 1 Timberlane defeated No. 3 Milford 13-10 in the title game, held at Pinkerton Academy in Derry.

Dominic Pallaria led the Owls (12-0) by carrying the ball 32 times for 157 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that gave Timberlane a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Garrett Shivell added 59 yards on the ground and threw for 22, but it was the defense that kept Milford (8-3) in check until late in the game.

"For the most part, our guys were able to contain that (Milford) run game, and that was probably the difference in the game," Timberlane coach Kevin Fitzgerald said. "We stayed patient (offensively) in the run game, that's been our calling card all year. We were able to run the clock out at the end with it.

"Pallaria is very good. I made the decision with three or four minutes left I was going to put the game in his hands. He's the senior running back, he's very good, I was going to ride with him until the end."

Harrison Bloom added a pair of field goals for Timberlane, including a 36-yard kick right before half time that gave the Owls a 10-3 lead a the break. He also hit from 21 yards out with 8:50 to play, a kick that proved to be the game winner.

Milford's Colin Gregg hit a 37-yard field goal with 4:02 remaining in the first half to get the Spartans on the board. Caden Zalenski had the lone touchdown, scoring on a 7-yard run to make it 13-10 with 3:32 remaining.

Zalenski finished with just 34 yards on the ground and Chuck Urda ran for 34 yards while completing 6 of 9 passes for 90 yards.

"These kids have been resilient all year; defensively we've been as tough as anybody all year long," Milford coach Keith Jones said. "And they showed it again (Saturday). Stop after stop after stop, just a tribute to what they bring to the table.

"Unfortunately we struggled on offense (Saturday). They had a lot of answers. They controlled the points of attack. We weren't getting to their linebackers, they were killing us."

It was the first championship appearance in some time for both teams, as Milford hadn't reached a final since 2004 and Timberlane since 2001.

"We had our eyes on this game the whole time," Fitzgerald said. "But our guys never lost sight of the week-to-week, the day-to-day process. We talked about getting better for this specific game."

Note: Information for this story provided by Tom King of the Nashua Telegraph.