PLAISTOW – If you would’ve told Concord head coach Jim Corkum before the start of the season that his team would make it to the preliminary round of the playoffs, he probably would’ve signed up for it right away.
Yet despite the Tide exceeding expectations throughout the 2022 season, that didn’t erase the sting that came with No. 11 Concord’s 20-14 loss on Friday night to end a promising season.
The first 12 minutes of the game had all the makings of a shootout. The Tide (5-4) recovered the opening kickoff after a Timberlane (8-2) muff and scored less than three minutes later when Divon Duncan ran in a 21-yard touchdown. The Owls responded almost immediately with a 32-yard TD off a shovel pass to Daniel Post to tie the score.
Concord punched back on a 38-yard rushing TD from sophomore Nathan Galbraith, but quickly allowed Timberlane to drive right back down the field and score another touchdown. The Owls missed the extra point, though, and the Tide maintained a 14-13 lead.
The defenses stiffened in the second quarter until Concord allowed a 2-yard rushing TD to Post with just 2.6 seconds left in the half. The Owls carried a 20-14 lead into the break and never looked back.
Early in the third quarter, the Tide had what would’ve been a 17-yard TD run from Eli Bahuma called back because of a holding penalty. That was the closest their offense would come to the end zone for the rest of the game.
“Too many mistakes that you can’t (have) against teams like this,” Corkum said. “Too many penalties, too many opportunities and things that happened in the course of the game that unfortunately didn’t go our way. When you give good teams like that more and more opportunities, they’re gonna make you pay for it.”
One of the challenges for Concord was that Duncan hurt himself on that first touchdown run and missed the rest of the game. Corkum hoped to involve Duncan and some of his other skill position players not named Bahuma to take some pressure off the junior running back because opposing defenses had started keying in on him. But with Duncan out, the offense couldn’t find much consistency.
As a result, the Tide closed out the season on a three-game losing streak after their 5-1 start. It was still a marked improvement from last year’s 3-6 campaign.
Concord was 5-4 in NHIAA play, but 6-4 overall when you count the Tide’s victory over Rutland, Vt. Six wins is the most Crimson Tide football has had since 2014, which was also the last time Concord qualified for the playoffs.
“We’re hoping that the season that they put together and what they’ve been able to do in getting into the playoffs and being competitive against all the best teams in the state is something we want to continue to build on,” Corkum said. “We’ve just gotta continue to take that next step and hopefully start coming out on the other side of these tight games against good teams.”
As Corkum always likes to remind his players, high school football is about way more than the wins and losses. That message was especially true after seeing their season come to an end after all the long practices in the summer heat, the exhausting conditioning and so much more.
“The bonds and relationships developed with these kids, they’re a great group,” Corkum said. “They’re all great friends. They’re all with each other during the day, they’re eating lunch together, they’re doing things together. … One thing I told them at the end, ’25 years from now when you’re washed up and old and fat like me, you’re gonna still remember these bonds, you’re still gonna have these bonds with the guys you have on this team, you’ll still be in touch with them, and that’s what I hope they take out of this football experience.”