RallyNorth.net

Sat, Oct 11, 2008 01:00 PM @ Pinkerton

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
Concord	0	6	0	0	6
Pinkerton	0	7	7	20	34

Pinkerton wakes up, downs Concord

Saturday, October, 11 By David Willis
Staff writer

DERRY – Pinkerton captain Chris George and his teammates were visibly upset following the first play of the second quarter.

 

“We probably weren’t as excited going into the game as we should have been,” said George. “We weren’t where we should have been, and we weren’t expecting them to drive down the field on us, then score right away.”

 

Concord appeared to be anything but an underdog early on, opening the game with two big drives, the second resulting in a touchdown one play into the second frame.

 

But the Astros, led by junior defensive lineman Ben Proulx, dominated the rest of the way and downed the Crimson 34-6 yesterday afternoon.

 

“That touchdown was definitely a wakeup call,” said Proulx. “We usually have a strong goal line defense, so that really knocked us down and woke us up.”

 

After allowing 82 yards to Concord through the first quarter, the Astros locked down and surrendered only 54 yards the rest of the game. They allowed the Crimson to pass the 50 only once in the final three quarters, and that resulted in a turnover on downs.

 

“We made a few minor adjustments,” said Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly. “They hurt us with the counter (run). We needed the linebackers to stay home. They were running and not staying where they needed to be. But once they held their own, the holes were tougher to run through.”

 

Proulx led the Astros attack. The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder, sporting a Mohawk haircut, made a team-high 11 tackles. Four of those stops were for a loss of yardage, and two more were for no gain.

Linebacker Tom Giancola was next best with eight tackles, Mike Mazzola had four stops and Ryan Raymond had three tackles and a sack. Sean Allen grabbed an interception to end the Crimson’s last meaningful drive.

 

The offense also woke up in the second quarter. After punting on their first drive and fumbling the ball away on the second, the Astros scored on four of their final five drives. The exception was an interception just before the half.

 

“The first was definitely a little shaky,” said George. “But once we started pounding the ball and getting it to the outside, we were moving. It just took a few little moves.”

 

George did plenty of that pounding. The fullback carried 10 times for 44 yards and touchdowns of 4 and 3 yards. He also caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Simpson. Junior speedster Eric Guinto was his normal dynamic self, rushing for a team-high 130 yards and the team’s first score, a 34-yard run. Freshman Kevin Davies added the final score, a 9-yard run with 13 seconds left in the game.

 

“We really needed to take care of the football,” said O’Reilly. “The fumble and interception hurt us. But I thought we fixed those problems at halftime. I think we are doing well. But we’ll find out next week against Brockton.”

Additional stories:

• Pinkerton wakes up, downs Concord