LACONIA – Winnisquam piled up points all season long, overwhelming teams with offense on the way to the Division IV football championship. Once they got to the final, the Bears won it with defense.
Top-ranked Winnisquam held No. 3 Fall Mountain to 162 yards of offense, came up with five turnovers, scored on defense and didn’t allow a single point on its way to a 20-0 win at Bank of New Hampshire Stadium in Laconia on Saturday night.
“The defense was unreal. They stepped it up knowing what kind of a run team (Fall Mountain is) and what we had to do, they accepted the challenge and took it,” Bears coach Derek Hunt said. “I told them all week … they’re going to try and push you around, and … we were strong and we were prepared. We had a good week of practice and it showed tonight.”
The win capped a second straight 9-0 championship season for the Bears.
“This one feels the same, well, maybe better, it’s two in a row,” said Winnisquam junior Garrett Mango, who had two touchdown catches, an interception and two tackles for a loss. “We just took it one game at a time. Coaches told us to take it one game at a time, and we did, and that’s how we got here.”
Winnisquam also beat Fall Mountain (6-3) during the regular season, 33-14, on Sept. 14, but that was the Wildcats’ last loss before Saturday night. They had won six straight, including a 37-0 win over No. 2 Raymond in the semifinals, and it seemed clear they wanted to keep riding that momentum after winning the opening coin toss and electing to receive.
It looked like a good decision as Fall Mountain methodically moved it into Winnisquam territory. But the Bears defense rose up and ended the drive when Philip Nichols stopped Izaak Westover (22 carries, 86 yards) a yard short on a fourth-and-2.
Fall Mountain moved into Winnisquam territory again the next time they got the ball, and again the Bears rose to the challenge, and this time that defense got points. Westover was fighting for extra yards on a third-and-short when the ball popped free. Winnisquam’s Gunnar Horman scooped the fumble off the turf and went 67 yards the other way for the score, giving the Bears a 7-0 lead in the final minute of the first quarter.
Horman is one of the Bears most talented players, and one of only two seniors on the roster. He had a few miscues on Saturday, but he also came up with game-changing plays like the fumble recovery.
“Gunnar had a couple of dropped balls, and that’s not like his character, but he made it up with some big plays,” Hunt said.
The Bears doubled their lead just a few minutes later on a big play for the offense. With Fall Mountain blitzing, Nichols flipped a short pass to Mango. He got a nice block from Nolen Perrino to spring free and did the rest himself, speeding down the left sideline for a 55-yard score and a 14-0 lead with 11:09 left in the second.
It looked like Fall Mountain would trim that lead before halftime, but Mango intercepted Luke Gay (4-for-17, 43 yards, three interceptions) on the Winnsiquam 5-yard line to end a scoring threat and send the Bears into the locker room with that 14-point edge.
“We were happy to be up, but we had to stay focused and we had to stay concentrated,” Mango said, “so we went into the second half like the score was 0-0.”
Like they did for most of the second quarter, the two defenses controlled the third. Fall Mountain’s Alex Flynn had one of his three sacks in the third, and Winnisquam’s Noah Pearson had two sacks in the quarter, the second one also causing a fumble that Nichols recovered.
The Wildcats pushed the ball deep into Winnisquam territory early in the fourth quarter, but Gay’s pass attempt into the end zone on fourth-and-6 from the 10 fell incomplete. The Bears turned that field position around and moved across midfield after a couple of nice runs from Perrino (six carries, 13 yards). He was filling in for the starting running back, Andre Cormier, who left the game in the first half with an injury.
Those runs set up Mango’s second touchdown. Again it was just a short pass from Nichols (11-for-16, 183 yards, two touchdowns) out to the left side. This time, Mango had no one to block for him, but he didn’t need it. He juked the one defender in front of him to the turf and then went 36 yards to the house to make it 20-0 with 4:21 on the clock.
“I thought I had him, and I took him,” Mango said.
Fall Mountain had two more possessions after that, but both ended with interceptions – one from Horman, and one from Nichols.
Hunt has been with the Winnisquam program for 13 seasons, but this is his first year as the team’s head coach. He won’t get a chance to defend the D-IV title next year, the Bears are moving up to D-III, but he certainly enjoyed leading this Winnisquam team to its repeat title.
“Winning it last year was great, it was my first year being involved with (a championship),” Hunt said, “but doing it as a head coach is unreal.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)