By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School Football squad took another stride towards a perfect season with their 39-point shutout of the Keene High School Blackbirds at home of Friday night.
Junior quarterback Drew Heenan and head coach Jimmy Lauzon led their team to its seventh consecutive win with just two games left in the regular season.
National Football League veteran tight-end and former Lancer quarterback Ryan Griffin attended the game, and gave words of encouragement to the team prior to the start. His New York Jets team was on a bye-week after a trip to London where they dropped a game to the Atlanta Falcons.
The Blackbirds started the game with the ball and a long drive that ended at the Lancer 10-yard line where the LHS defense stuffed a fourth down attempt and gained possession halfway through the first quarter.
That initial drive by the Lancers ended quickly with a punt, as did the following drive by Keene.
The Lancers second drive of the game started at their 30-yard-line, where Heenen completed a bomb to junior Andrew Kullman, getting the ball just across the 50-yard line.
A pass, this time under immense pressure on Heenan, resulted in a completion to sophomore Jake Schena and put the ball at Keene’s 37-yard line where the first quarter ended.
The drive finished up with two very good runs by Heenen to put LHS at first-and-goal at the 10-yard line.
The Londonderry squad finally got on the board at 9:53 in the second with a one-yard by junior Trevor Weinmann for a touchdown. The point after attempt was good by junior Dylan Wrisley for the 7-0 lead.
The LHS scoring picked up after that drive in the second quarter and the Lancers had two more drives ending with points for the home team.
Heenan completed another long pass to Kullman, this time for a 54-yard touchdown. Lauzon called for a fake extra point attempt and LHS managed a two-point conversion pass by Kullman to senior wide receiver Colby Ramshaw for the 15-0 lead.
Keene was able to stop the Lancers from progressing past the six yard line, where Wrisley made a 26-yard field goal and put the home team on top by 18-points to end the half.
Senior Anthony Salcito received the kickoff to start the second half at the 17-yard line where he blazed a trail to the end zone for a return of 83-yards and six more points. Wrisley’s point after kick was good, putting the Lancer squad up by 25 unanswered points.
In the fourth quarter, Salcito added a 93-yard punt return for his second touchdown of the night, finishing the night with 176-yards on returns, sure-footed Wrisley kicked another point after for the 32-0 lead.
The Lancer scoring ended at 5:36 left in the game, Schena ran for 63-yards to pay dirt. The point after made it 39-0 and gave the Lancers one of the best records in the division.
Winnecunnet also has a 7-0 season-record heading into the final two weeks, but they are in the West Division and won’t face the Lancers in the regular season.
Schena led the team in rushing with six carries for 87 yards. Heenen kept the ball 11 times and ran for 80-yards. Senior Matthew Perron had five carries for 21 yards.
Kullman had three receptions in the game to lead in catches at 98 yards. Kyle McPhail also had three receptions, his was for 26-yards.
The Lancers will travel to Salem High School next Friday night at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils are 4-2 with one game cancelled this season.