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Bishop Guertin Cardinals Football '14

Unfinished business: Astros cruise in semis, set sights on title

DERRY — For the Pinkerton Astros, championship week will be a trip down memory lane.
 
Unfortunately for Pinkerton, most of the images conjured up will be a might painful.
 
Like the club's one and only football trip to the title game opponent Bedford High last year, a 14-12 loss?
 
Or how about the last three state finals' appearances — all losses?
 
As happy as Pinkerton should be about rolling to its 11th straight win yesterday, 35-0 over Bishop Guertin in Division 1 state semis, satisfaction is yet to be secured. Saturday (6 p.m.), it can be had, at the University of New Hampshire against 11-0 Bedford, which gritted out its semifinal victory, 14-7, over Exeter.
 
"If we're not (a winner next week) it's a lost weekend," said Astros' coach Brian O'Reilly. You're going to get our best. We're not just satisfied being there. Our goal always is to be there. Now that we're there, we have to do something about it."
 
The top-seeded Astros simply overpowered BG yesterday, grinding out 354 yards on 55 carries, ending the Cardinals' five-game win streak and their season.
 
"Bishop Guertin is a good team, we knew that," said Astros halfback T.J. Urbanik. "That's a hard-hitting team. I got beat up pretty good out there. But we were up for this all week."

 
Urbanik powered a balanced Astros ground game, rolling up 149 yards and three TDs on 18 tries. But he was hardly a one-man band as fullback Michael Curley (14-86), super-sub Brett Dattilo (6-71, 1 TD) and QB Jack Hanaway (5-31) each took their turns gnawing away at BG.
 
 
"We have so many weapons, it's hard to key on one person," said Urbanik. "You focus on one guy, and someone else will beat you."
 
Up 21-0 at the half thanks to long Pinkerton scoring drives of 97, 85 and 67 yards, BG just never made it a game. 
 
Urbanik's third score of the game, on 4th-and-goal from the 1, plus Nick Coombs' 47-yard punt return sent this one into "running time" as the teams changed ends to play the last quarter.
 
Pinkerton will now turn the focus to next week's super-power showdown with the unbeaten Bulldogs.
 
"I remember it well," said O'Reilly of the September 2013 meeting. "They were coming up from Division 2, and that was a big deal to them. They beat us and it hurt."
 
Urbanik and his teammates felt the pain, too.
 
"That's one I can't forget," said the junior, who has now run for 1,205 yards on 113 carries this season. "They embarrassed us last year."

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Football, 11/15/14 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Astros storm to 35-0 halftime lead

NASHUA — Outside of Derry, Pinkerton is known for game-breaking running back T.J. Urbanik. But the speedy junior was used sparingly in the first half Saturday, touching the ball just eight times, as new starting fullback Michael Curley and quarterback Jack Hanaway put on a show for the Stellos Stadium crowd. They powered Pinkerton to a 35-12 win over Bishop Guertin in a Division I conference crossover game. The South-leading Astros (5-0) rushed for 247 yards with Curley accounting for 64 of those and two first-quarter touchdown runs of 1 and 2 yards in addition to a 5-yard TD catch with 28 seconds left in the half. It was exactly what Astros coach Brian O’Reilly wanted to see out of his 5-foot-11, 180-pound junior, who took over for injured co-captain Jason Hansen (torn ACL last week). “He’s now our starting fullback, but it’s always been 1A and 1B,” said O’Reilly, whose club is ranked No. 1 in the state. “It’s just that Jason got all the carries before this, and he’s our guy now. He doesn’t come off the field. Mike’s somebody that we really count on.” Another guy the Astros count on is Hanaway. Saturday, the 6-foot-3, 186-pound senior did his part to pull away from the Cardinals (1-4) early. Hanaway marched the Astros down the field on nine plays, including a 19-yard connection with Urbanik, for Curley’s first score on the opening drive of the game. The Astros went on an 11-play drive late in the first quarter which Curley capped with a 2-yard run. Five minutes into the second quarter, Hanaway called his own number and took off down the right sideline 73 yards to paydirt. “Jack was our second-leading rusher last year, and I believe he’s our second-leading rusher this year,” said O’Reilly “You have to keep an eye on Jack, and I’m amazed how teams do not pay attention to him. And when they don’t pay attention to him, we let Jack do what Jack does. But because other teams pay attention to Jack, it opens up our offense inside for the other guys.”

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Football, 10/04/14 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Timberlane snaps losing streak

12.00

PLAISTOW – Watching Timberlane not only stare down fourth-quarter adversity but also come out on the victorious side, you’d think it was used to game-on-the-line pressure.

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Football, 09/19/14 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars

Fairweather, Londonderry whip BG

LONDONDERRY — Londonderry opened its season by thumping Bishop Guertin 28-6.

Quarterback Eric Fairweather fired a 42-yard touchdown pass to Michael Ryan and also scored on runs of 80 and 2 yards.

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Football, 09/05/14 » 0 Comments & 0.0 Stars