Winnacunnet football got lift from offense in title-game victory

After watching the Winnacunnet High School football team go up and down the field throughout Saturday's Division I championship game, Pinkerton coach Brian O'Reilly said what many were likely thinking.

Where had that been all season?

Sure, the Warriors had averaged better than 30 points per game leading up to the title game, but against playoff teams, they had only surpassed that point total once, in an overtime win against Bedford in the quarterfinals.

But in Saturday's 41-21 win, everything came together on offense for a Winnacunnet team that had been led for most of the year by its defense.

"I don’t understand why they didn’t do this all year long because of the speed they have in the backfield and the experience at quarterback," O'Reilly said. "The only thing I didn’t know coming in was why they weren’t scoring as much as you would have expected. We had no answer for their offense."

The Warriors (12-0) gained 273 yards in the first half and had possession for over 15 minutes, as they were getting anything that they wanted. Patrick MacDougall was 4 of 4 passing for 78 yards and three touchdowns, and also had 66 rushing yards, while Jordan Fuller had 91 yards on the ground and two scores.

"We’re capable of a lot of things," Winnacunnet coach Ron Auffant said. "We’d played really good football, but I think this was our best against a really good team. Our game plan was to try to take them out of what they do best. We were concerned with that. We watched them on film and I’m shaking my head. We tried to take them out of the run game and make them throw and not give up big plays."

Auffant likely thought going in that it would be the Winnacunnet defense that was going to have to make those things happen.

But after Pinkerton went three-and-out to open the game, the Astros' offense didn't take the field again until there was 4:56 left in the opening quarter, and they were down 14-0.

Winnacunnet took its first possession and scored on a nine-play, 69-yard drive, and then the Warriors got the ball back when Ty Hicks fumbled the kickoff return. Four plays later, Winnacunnet had found the end zone again, scoring two touchdowns in a little more than two minutes.

"They scored every time they had the ball until finally, I don’t know, maybe they got tired or something," O'Reilly said. "We had no answer for the veer (offense). We worked on it all week and you wouldn’t know it. We understood what they did."

After losing to Bishop Guertin in the Division II playoffs from 2009-11, Auffant and his coaching staff switched the Warriors offense to the veer to try to give teams a different look.

"It’s triple-option football (and) it’s hard to stop everything," the coach said. "Some of the best high school programs (in the country) run it. I think what happens is it makes you play assignment football. One time you don’t do your assignment, big plays happen.

"You have to have the people to do it. Pat’s not your typically option quarterback. He’s more of a spread quarterback, but he’s done it well. He had to step in sophomore year when we had injuries. Since we’ve gone to it, we’ve scored a lot of points."