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Bishop helps Lancers open with a rout

Friday, September, 06 By Jeff Hamrick

LONDONDERRY – The Lancers haven’t had much reason to celebrate opening night, but last night they put on a bravura performance and began a season with a victory for the first time in five years.

Dennis Bishop highlighted a rushing attack that piled up 531 yards and seven touchdowns as Londonderry ran over visiting Manchester West 49-14 before a typical overflowing crowd.

“The first thing I told them was it’s good to get our season off to a good start finally,” said Londonderry coach Jon Rich, who had not had a first-game win since defeating Winnacunnet 26-13 in 2008. “The kids have been working hard since Day 1. We had a tough week last week when we scrimmaged Spaulding, so to come out with a nice win is good and the kids will enjoy it.”

In that scrimmage, Londonderry lost running back Mike Ryan to a knee injury. Rich found more than capable relacements last night. Leading the way was Dennis Bishop, who finished with 182 yards and two touchdowns. Eric Fairweather added 115 yards on five carries and four others ran for at least 52 yards.

“It’s really hard to replace a kid like Mike ... not just anybody can step into his shoes,” Rich said of losing his running back for the season. “So it was good to see other people step up all over the place really.”

Setting them up: The Lancers offense took advantage of good field position all night, scoring on drives of 45 yards or fewer five times. None of their scoring possessions lasted more than six plays and four of them required two plays or fewer.

The quickest score came on an 80-yard burst by Fairweather for the game’s first touchdown.

Knocking them down: Londonderry had 15 rushing attempts that went for 11 yards or more, 10 in the first half. Bishop had four carries of 23 yards or longer despite not taking a handoff until the final minute of the opening quarter.

“I was just getting pumped up (watching the early assault),” Bishop said. “I was ready to go, but I just had to do my job once I got in there.”

Shutting down the pass: After allowing Manchester quarterback Zach Theriault to complete eight of his first 10 attempts for 106 yards, Londonderry held the passer to only five completions for 38 yards with three picks on his final 17 tosses.

“We knew they were big up front,” Rich said. “Once we started getting a little pressure on him it took away from what he could do.”