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Pinkerton earns top playoff seed

Saturday, November, 06 By Jeff Hamrick

DERRY — Fortunately for Pinkerton, it didn’t need style points to reach the playoffs. All the Astros needed to do was just win baby.

And that’s exactly what they did yesterday as Pinkerton held off Manchester Memorial’s second-half rally for a 34-25 victory. The win guaranteed the Astros (8-2 overall, 7-1 division) home-field advantage throughout the Division 1 playoffs that begin next weekend.

“Before the game, everyone said we had to do what we had to do,” said running back Mike Mazzola, who scored twice and rushed for a game-high 89 yards on 11 carries. “The team did a great job in the first half.”

Playing a team it had defeated each of the past four years by a combined 181-12, the Astros appeared to be off to more of the same yesterday. After the teams traded turnovers on the game’s first two plays, Pinkerton went 72 yards on five plays behind the running of Mazzola who had a 49-yard gain before scoring on an 8-yard run less than 3 minutes into the encounter.

“We wanted to come out and put them away,” Mazzola said.

Pinketon scored four more times in the opening half while allowing Memorial (4-6, 2-6) only one touchdown. Touchdown runs by Emmitt Smith and Mazzola and a 48-yard fumble return by Corey Beck sparked the Astros. And when Smith hauled in a 71-yard scoring pass from Chris St. Onge with 29 seconds left, Pinkerton appeared in control with a 34-7 advantage at intermission.

During the first two quarters, the Astros outgained the Crusaders 272 yards to 99 despite running only three more plays.

“We did our job in the first half then we didn’t show any intensity in the second,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “And that’s as much my fault as anyone’s. At halftime we started talking about getting kids out to rest them for next week. And when a coach starts talking about that type of thing, it probably plants the wrong kind of seed in the minds of the kids, so that one’s on me.”

After the break, Memorial went to the air to inflict its damage as Cody Dalton completed eight of his first nine attempts for 102 yards and one touchdown. In the half, Dalton was 12 of 16 for 136 yards and added a pair of short touchdown runs, helping Memorial climb to within nine with 5:10 left.

The Astros play host to defending champion Salem in the semifinals. During the regular season, Pinkerton defeated the Blue Devils 38-31 in Week 4.

“We know (Salem) well,” O’Reilly said. “They have one of the most dynamic offenses we’ve seen in many, many years. We’ll go at it and see what happens. We’ll be preaching defense (this week) and tackling.”