RallyNorth.net

Pinkerton runs Nashua North into ground

Saturday, September, 10 By Jeff Hamrick

DERRY – One week after toppling Division 2 titlist Bishop Guertin, Pinkerton was facing what many consider to be the defending Division 1 champion Astros biggest challenger within the division this year.

If that was the case, the rest of the large-school contenders already might start preparing for next season because the 2011 version at Pinkerton looked pretty formidable yesterday.

The Astros broke open a seven-point halftime lead by scoring 22 points in a span of fewer than 6 minutes in the third and ran away from visiting Nashua South for a convincing 56-14.

“We knew (the Panthers) were one of the best teams in the division,” said running back Emmitt Smith, who scored four touchdowns and averaged 19.8 yards on his 10 rushing attempts. “Every week that’s what we think. The team we’re playing is looking to beat us, so we knew we couldn’t let down and we had to bring it on.”

Pinkerton (1-0 division, 2-0 overall) used its versatile three-man backfield to rout Nashua North (0-1, 1-1). Smith (10-198), Kevin Davies (12-152) and Manny Latimore (11-107) averaged a combined 13.8 yards per attempt and accumulated 457 of the team’s 501 total rushing yards and six of Pinkerton’s eight scores.

But it was a furious third-quarter stretch that put away the Panthers. After both teams scored 14 teams in a frenzied opening period, Latimore put the Astros ahead for good on a 40-yard run early in the second. Pinkerton opened the third quarter with an eight-play, 52-yard drive capped by Davies’ 3-yard run with 8:06 left then added two on a safety when North snapped the ball out of the end zone on a punt attempt. Three plays later Smith scored from 43 yards out before adding a 45-yard touchdown run with 2:14 left in the third.

“We knew we had them where we wanted to,” said Smith, who had a 57-yard touchdown and added a 47-yard touchdown reception from Chris St. Onge in the first quarter. “But we’re not used to giving up 14 points (in a quarter), so we knew we had to focus on defense. And even though we put up 56, we held them to zero in the second half and that was the big thing for us.”

For the game, Pinkerton averaged 10.9 yards on 46 carries. With St. Onge adding 101 yards on five of nine passing, the Astros finished with 602 yards of total offense on 55 plays from scrimmage. They also had 24 first downs.

“I think more incredible is the point total because we knew we could get the yards like last week,” said Smith, who was part of a 336 yard team rushing effort in last week’s 16-0 win at Bishop Guertin. “But we were able to punch it in a few times this week, so that was really big for us because we messed up a lot in the red zone last week.”

The Astro defense didn’t let its offensive counterpart do all the work though. After cpiling up 136 yards on its two first-quarter scoring drives, North managed only 76 yards on 36 plays from scrimmage. After intermission, the Panthers were held to zero yards or fewer on seven of 15 rushing attempts.

“Our lack of depth today, really caught up with us in the second half,” Nashua North coach Scott Knight said. “We thought we were in great shape, but we found out (yesterday) that we aren’t in the kind of shape we thought we were in. A lot of our key guys were going two ways. You have to be able to run, and that hurt us.”