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Manchester Central Little Green Football '07

Fri, Sep 07, 2007 07:00 PM @ Manchester Central
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Pinkerton 7 11 6 6 30
Manchester Central 7 8 0 6 21

Pinkerton survives with last minute scare from Manchester Central

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Saturday, September, 08 By Bill Burt
Sports editor

MANCHESTER, N.H. | From afar, everything went as expected. Pinkerton Academy, now 2-0, won 30-21. It never trailed. And it controlled the clock and the game, rushing for 238 yards, almost from the start.

There was one problem. It's defense.

For big chunks of the game, Manchester Central and its quarterback, Scott McCurdy moved up and down the field on Pinkerton's defense.

In fact, what appeared to be sure win looked grim in the final minute as Central stopped Pinkerton's drive inside their own 10-yard line and drove all the way to the Pinkerton 5-yard line, trailing by a field goal, 24-21.

Up to that point Central had amassed nearly 400 yards of offense, led by McCurdy (15-for-23 and 217 yards) and star back Mike Leclerc (16 rushes, 69 yards, 1 TD).

But the Astros defense somehow met the challenge, turning away two McCurdy passes and failed QB rollout. In fact, the game ended with Pinkerton senior Zach Smith returning McCurdy's last pass 98 yards for a touchdown as the clock expired.

The Astros led 7-0 and 14-7 thanks to a pair touchdowns by bruising full-back Mike Crupi. They went ahead 18-7 on a 35-yard field goal by Shawn Clukey, which bounced off the base of the crossbar before going through, appearing to take control of the game late in the first half.

But McCurdy quickly led Central to a score with four passes before the half ended to close it 18-15.

Pinkerton went ahead 24-15 on a Peter Mazzola pass to Bobby Dattilo.

The Astros had a chance to end the game late in the fourth quarter, inside the Central 10-yard line. But a delay of game penalty and botched pass play on fourth down gave Central the ball back with 2:49 left.

McCurdy got Central to the Pinkerton 5-yard line thanks to passes of 14, 29, 26 and 5 yards, bringing the 1,500 fans to their feet.

It ended with Smith's interception return.

Pinkerton, now 2-0, plays its first home game against Manchester West next Saturday, 1 p.m.

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