LEBANON – Wade Rainey rushed for 218 yards and added a 52-yard punt return for a touchdown as top-seeded Lebanon beat No. 5 Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton, 41-0, on Saturday afternoon at Henry Emerton Memorial Field.
The NHIAA Division III football semifinal victory sends the Raiders to their first state championship game since 2010. Despite frigid conditions – temperatures were in the low to mid-20s, and Lebanon’s grass surface was rock solid – the Raiders still brought the energy they needed.
“Coming out here in pregame, it was like walking on concrete. Just a really, really tough surface,” Rainey said. “It loosened up as the game went on, but you had to keep your steps short, choppy. Otherwise you were going to fall on your face. I think we did a really good job of being able to keep our forward momentum going while not widening our strides too much.”
The Raiders dominated from the beginning. On the opening possession of the game, a gang of Lebanon defensive linemen rushed at HDH’s Tyler Allen in the backfield and forced the football onto the ground, right into the path of Jonathan Willeman.
The senior scooped up the ball and ran 34 yards into the Redhawks’ end zone, finishing off the play. The score put Lebanon up with more than half of the first quarter left, but it was a blow from which HDH (7-4) never recovered.
“We were healthy, had a good week of practice, just didn’t have it,” Redhawks coach Jay Wood said. “They outplayed us. They deserve to get to the championship. There’s a lot to be said about being ready when you show up to play football.”
The shutout was the first of the season for Lebanon (10-1).
The Raiders also shut down one of the Granite State’s top running backs in HDH standout Colby Quiet. The senior didn’t score a touchdown for the first time all season and ran for only 54 yards on 19 carries. In the regular season meeting, he produced HDH’s only two touchdowns and ran for 223 yards in a 62-14 loss.
“He was definitely a focal point of our game plan,” Lebanon coach Chris Childs said. “We manned him up with Jon (Willeman). We wanted to know where he was and key on him.”
Lebanon’s offense constructed a 68-yard touchdown drive with less than five minutes to play in the first quarter. Rainey carried the ball seven times for 49 yards, but it was a Willeman 15-yard pass to Rainey that capped the effort.
After forcing a three-and-out on the ensuing possession, the Raiders extended their lead to 21-0 thanks to a pair of Willeman completions on a 69-yard drive. The senior quarterback found Cole Ames for a 28-yard gain and Calvin Bates in the right rear corner of the end zone from six yards out for the touchdown.
The Raiders struck again with more than a minute to play until the break when Philip Mellish punched in a score from a yard out.
Willeman prevented any HDH momentum just before halftime when he intercepted Redhawks quarterback Mike Oberheim on a flea flicker try.
Rainey put the game out of reach in the second half with his pair of touchdowns.
His TD run came in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. A trail of Redhawks could be seen trying to track him down the right sideline, but Rainey’s open-field speed was too much. Rainey’s performance put him over 1,000 rushing yards on the season.
Lebanon will now face Trinity next Sunday at UNH’s Wildcat Stadium.
HDH finished with 144 yards of total offense and four turnovers. Defensively, Quiet led the way with seven solo tackles, while Charles Veitch and Tyler Allen each added a sack and Alex Brown recovered a fumble.
(Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.)