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Timberlane snaps losing streak

Friday, September, 19 By Jeff Hamrick

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.

Instead it was a 10-game losing streak the Owls snapped last night with a 27-22 victory over perennial power Bishop Guertin by scoring 21 of the game’s final 28 points and stuffing the Crusaders when it mattered most. BG, which like Timberlane had lost its first two games of the year, had beaten the Owls by 29 points in each of the past two season.

“It’s a good victory,” said Timberlane coach Kevin Fitzgerald, whose squad had not won since the 2013 season opener against Alvirne. “We haven’t beaten those guys in a while, so it always feels good to be a program like that … I couldn’t be more pleased with the effort that our guys gave tonight.”

After falling behind for the third time of the night when BG scored with 9:10 left in the fourth, Timberlane proceeded on a big-boy drive that lasted 6:49 and went 79 yards.

Quarterback Jason Hughes, who had two of Timberlane’s first three scores, capped the monster possession with a 2-yard run with 2:21 left. On the drive, the Owls converted twice on third down, including the game winner and once on fourth.

But it was a staunch defense that put the offense in great position earlier with turnovers. A fumble recovery by Kyle Faucher with 45 seconds left in the first half, set up a 48-yard scoring run by Tyler Furey that cut BG’s lead to 15-13 entering intermission.

Early in the third, a Trevor Guilmette fumble recovery led to a 33-yard drive, which culminated in a 2-yard Hughes run and provided Timberlane its first lead of the season.

“It was a team effort,” said defensive end Kyle DiBurro, who had two of the Owls’ four sacks, forced a fumble and made a game-saving tackle on BG’s kickoff return following Hughes’ last TD. “You can’t really focus on individual stats. Everyone chipped in … (Defensively) we just talked about getting off the field. It’s been the biggest thing all season.”

It all ended with a win that should provide Timberlane confidence as it looks ahead to playing in the deep South Conference, a five-team division that entered the weekend with a combined 8-2 record.

“We’ve felt that we’re not far away from being a pretty decent football team,” Fitzgerald said. “we’ve been trying to preach that to the kids, and I think they’re buying it. Tonight I think we kind of showed that.”

Bishop Guertin held the lead three times in the game on two touchdown runs by Brandon Levesque and one by Jordan Hiscoe.

“We have guys that should have been here tonight, that weren’t here,” said BG coach Travis Cote, whose squad finished with 102 rushing yards — 420 fewer than they gained a year ago against the Owls. “We’ve got four of our best players out on both sides of the ball … We have to get back to work and change things.

Losing can become contagious, and we’ve got to put an end to that. Next week’s a conference game against Keene, and that’s going to be an important game for us.”