RallyNorth.net

BG runs all over Pinkerton

Saturday, September, 05 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

DERRY, N.H. — Big tight end Ben Proulx made a beautiful one-handed catch on a pass from Ryan Simpson and rumbled for a 29-yard touchdown with 1:36 left in the first half yesterday afternoon, bringing the Pinkerton fans to their feet with noisy approval.

Unfortunately for the Astros, that was pretty much the only thing to cheer about in a humbling 35-7 season-opening loss to defending Division 2 champion Bishop Guertin.

In front of more than 2,500 fans on a sunny and beautiful afternoon for football, Bishop Guertin dominated the line of scrimmage and completely stifled Pinkerton’s offense, giving support to the polls that rank the Cardinals as the No. 1 team in the state.

“They’re as good as advertised,” said Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly. “They have speed and they have athletes everywhere you look.

“As a coach, you look for an area to exploit. We couldn’t find anywhere with them. I knew they were the favorite coming in and they showed why. They’re a better team.”

Guertin’s defense held Astros’ speedster Eric Guinto to zero yards on eight carries, made 14 tackles for losses, intercepted four passes and forced four fumbles, recovering two.

“You can’t turn it over that much against anybody, but especially against a better team,” said O’Reilly. “It’s humbling, but more because of the turnovers than that they drove the ball up and down the field on us. They didn’t.”

Indeed, Guertin impressed on offense only in the first quarter. It opened the game with a 50-yard pass from new QB Steve Cupia to Mike Kelly and also completed passes of 32 and 30 yards in the first quarter while zooming to a quick 14-0 lead on two short Nick Phillips TD runs.

Of the Cardinals’ 196 yards of total offense, 151 came in the opening quarter. A third score in the second quarter made it 21-0, but that was more the result of a recovered fumble on the Pinkerton 28-yard line and some determined running by Adam Hall (14 carries, 74 yards), who carried three times before reaching the end zone on a 12-yard burst.

Proulx’s catch narrowed the gap to 21-7 at halftime, but Pinkerton’s offense was even less productive in the second half, gaining just 31 yards on the ground without completing a pass — other than the four interceptions thrown.

Guertin coach Tony Johnson, who was worried about the big buildup for his team, couldn’t have been happier with the performance.

“This is as satisfying a victory as any I’ve ever had,” said Johnson, who is in his 16th year as head coach. “We had a great preseason and there was a lot of hype, so I was worried we might come in here flat.

“But our defense was outstanding and we did what we had to do on offense after they did a nice job of shutting down our option.”

Pinkerton’s defense was just as effective as the Cardinals in the second half, allowing only 18 total yards of offense, but one of the interceptions resulted in a short TD drive and another was returned 29 yards for a score.

“I did see some things to build around on defense,” said O’Reilly. “The line was pretty solid and I liked the way Luke Somers came in tackling hard from the secondary.”

Offensively, sophomore Kevin Davies had some success running the ball inside, gaining 41 yards on nine carries.

Pinkerton will be at home again next Saturday afternoon against Manchester Memorial.