The chants rang out loudly from the visiting sideline, “U-N-H, U-N-H.” The Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough football team had been waiting nearly a year to hear those words again, and with a 10-yard touchdown plunge from junior running back Andrew Brothers on the Lakers’ first possession of overtime, their wait was over.
After the Lakers defense stuffed host Bishop Brady on four downs to set the tone in overtime, Brothers dragged a sea of Green Giant defenders to the 9-yard line on I-L/M’s first play of the extra session. He kept his legs moving and eventually burst through, crossing the goal line to give the Lakers a 34-28 victory over Bishop Brady in a wild and exciting Division III semifinal at Memorial Field and their second straight trip to the title game in Durham.
“Once I saw the goal line, I just could not stop moving my legs. Just a couple more steps and I knew I would be in,” Brothers said of the game-winning score. “It was a little nerve-wracking. I knew our defense was going to be able to handle the ball, I was just worried about us trying to be able to score back on offense again but it turned out well.”
As the overtime period was set to begin with the Lakers on defense, Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough Coach Jon Francis was looking for anything to keep his fatigued team motivated and on its toes. The news that Stevens had defeated No. 1 Monadnock in the other semifinal was just the thing.
“We wanted to start on defense, that was our choice and the defense stepped up,” Francis said. “I called a timeout toward the end (of regulation) and told them that Stevens had won, 26-21, so I burned a timeout just to tell them that. I was willing to try anything at that point.”
The trick worked.
Bishop Brady opened the extra period with a pair of rushes from Moses Murenzi and quarterback Joe Bernard for no gain. Murenzi picked up five yards on a third-down carry, but Bernard threw a pass into a crowd in the end zone on fourth down that fell incomplete.
Moments later, Brothers and the Lakers (8-2) were celebrating on the field. In a matter of minutes, Brady (8-2) went from knocking on the door of an appearance in the championship game to having its season end abruptly.
“We wanted the ball and the play I called, we had been spying the open guy most of the game,” Bishop Brady Coach Matt Shaw said of the fourth-down play call in overtime. “It took too long to develop, too long to get there and the defense, for the first time all game, jumped on the guy we were looking for.
“It’s rough for these seniors,” Shaw added. “They’ve put everything they had into it for these four years and to come up short like that, it’s nothing short of devastating.”
The loss was made even tougher due to how well the Giants played in the first half.
Bernard threw for 118 yards and three touchdowns in the opening half, using a short field to find Aidan Plumpton for a 20-yard TD strike and connecting with Kenneth Fusco on a crossing route for a 37-yard touchdown after starting on the Lakers 47 for the early 14-0 lead.
Unaffected by the 14-point hole, Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough pieced together a three-minute, 65-yard drive capped off with a touchdown pass from Ryan Kelly (18-for-35, 148 yards, 3 TDs) to a wide open Jayden Lara in the end zone. Brady countered with a 16-play drive on the next possession as Bernard hooked up with Richard Sullivan on a fly route down the left sideline for a beautiful 28-yard touchdown, but the Giants left the door open at the end of the half.
With 3:40 to play, Brady ran three straight pass plays that took just 20 seconds off the clock. The Lakers took over on the Brady 42, used a pair of Green Giant penalties to move down the field and cut the deficit to seven on a 3-yard dive for Brothers.
A mistake-free first half turned into a turnover frenzy in the second half as both quarterbacks threw a pick and Brady fumbled three times – twice on botched snaps and one on a missed exchange between Bernard and Murenzi.
Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough managed to tie the game at 21-all early in the third quarter, converting a fourth-and-5 from the Brady 20 to set up a 9-yard TD scamper for Kelly on a play action roll out and took its first lead of the contest in the opening minute of the fourth as the play action worked again, this time with Kelly throwing to Zach Swanson for a 10-yard score.
“We just had some guys getting hurt left and right so things were really looking bad for us for awhile. But the measure of a good team is being able to rise above that and at the end of the day, they were able to do that so I couldn’t be prouder of them,” Francis said.
Shaw was happy to see Brady battle back and tie the game in the fourth quarter on a short touchdown run from Plumpton, but it didn’t erase the pain of defeat for Shaw as he knelt near midfield long after the contest was over.
“This one is going to hurt for awhile,” Shaw said. “All year, we weren’t supposed to win games. We weren’t supposed to be in the playoffs. We weren’t supposed to win the first round and we probably sure as hell weren’t supposed to give Inter-Lakes that much of a fight.”
Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough will take on Stevens in the championship game on Saturday (11 a.m.) at UNH.
Stevens 26, Monadnock 21
SWANZEY – In a shocking upset, top-seeded and undefeated Monadnock lost to Stevens, 26-21, in a Division III semifinal. A touchdown for Monadnock’s Jarod Redfield, and two for Jacob Wood gave the Huskies a 21-6 cushion at halftime, but the Cardinals came storming back in the fourth quarter to stun the home crowd.
Stevens’ Richard Bell put on a show, trimming the deficit to single digits on a 1-yard plunge and adding two more scores on touchdown catches of 37 and 38 yards from quarterback Henri Bourque. The Cardinals wouldn’t seal the victory until the defense picked off Monadnock with 1:18 to play.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)