RallyNorth.net

Sanborn falls despite improvements

Saturday, September, 19 By Conor Clancy

KINGSTON, N.H. — Despite showing major improvements to it's young team especially on the defensive side of the ball, the Sanborn Regional Indians dropped its third staight game to open the season, 6-0 to the Merrimack Valley Pride.

After giving up 89 points in the first two games of the season, the Indians all but shut down the Pride offense, surrendering only a single touchdown in the second quarter and only 106 total yards on the day. However as well as the Indian defense looked, the offense continued to struggle, turning the ball over four times inside the red zone despite controlling the ball for the majority of the game. 

Although his team was on the wrong end of the final score, second year coach Mike Drouin was proud of the improvement his team has made since the first two games. 

"I thought the defense played great today, they really came to play," said Drouin. "The offense just really struggled and we just have to keep working at it during the week"

Leading the way for the hard-hitting Sanborn D was sophomore linebacker Glen Smith and sophomore safety Dylan Spence,  each of whom laid several big hits on Merrimack Valley runners. 

Most of the offense for Drouin's team was provided by junior running back John Francavilla (12 rushes 51 yards), who ran extremely hard between the tackles despite being listed at only 160 lbs.  

Sanborn seemed poised to score several times in the second half but were turned away each time. During the third and into the fourth quarter, Sanborn had the ball inside the 15 yard-line on three straight possession but came away with no points.

Sophomore quarterback Ryan Morris (11-24, 77 yards ,1 int) and the Sanborn offense ate up all but two minutes of the third quarter, driving to the 15 yard line before falling a yard short on fourth down. 

Sanborns next possession ended the same way with a failed fourth-down attempt despite being given excellent field posistion on the 10 yardline after botched Merrimack Valley punt. A final push for the endzone on the next drive halted on the 10 again after Morris was sacked from behind and fumbled.

Drouin stayed positive though despite the miscues. "Merrimack Valley is a good team and although we didn't get the win, I'm still happy with the way we came back after the last couple weeks, we are a completely different team then we were last friday."

Echoing their coaches thoughts, even as the Sanborn players were leaving the field, many of them could be heard shouting encourgements to their teammates, praising the defense and the overall improvement of play.