It’s now two games played, and two resounding blowout victories for the 2017 Londonderry High football team.
A week after their 55-21 blasting of Bishop Guertin in Nashua, the Lancers drove their record up to 2-0 with a 27-7 trouncing of the Timberlane Owls in Plaistow last Friday night, Sept. 8.
Coach Jimmy Lauzon’s LHS crew will now attempt to push its season mark to a perfect 3-0 with its first 2017 home game against the undefeated Nashua North Titans at Londonderry High this Friday night, Sept. 15. The Titans are also at 2-0 in the season’s start.
Londonderry grasped a 7-0 lead at halftime of the road game at Timberlane and went up 14-0 in quarter three before seeing its lead trimmed to 14-7 early in quarter four. But the locals tallied 13 unanswered points down the stretch to get to the 27-7 final.
“I’m very happy with how we took care of the ball and how physical we were,” said Lauzon. “Our defense played great.”
The victors amassed more than 300 yards worth of offense behind 211 rushing yards and 98 passing yards, and sophomore stalwart Jeff Wiedenfeld notching 99 rushing yards on 25 carries and the game’s first touchdown. Senior quarterback Mike McAlister sprinted for 86 yards and passed for 98 others, including one touchdown toss.
The Lancers’ intense defense held now 0-2 Timberlane to less than 200 yards at just 183.
The locals forged into the lead at 7-0 with a little more than four minutes remaining in quarter one on a four-yard sprint by Wiedenfeld, with Pat Zepf contributing the point-after kick. And 7-0 was where the score sat at halftime.
When Londonderry bounced its lead up to 14-0 late in the third period, it was tight end Zepf who connected with quarterback McAlister on an eight-yard scoring pass to pay-dirt. Zepf then added the kick to make it a 14-0 contest.
Timberlane stayed in the game by scoring on a short run during the opening minute of the fourth period, but the Lancers answered withscoring sprints by McAlister (one yard with 4:33 left) and Jacob Dionne (nine yards with 2:32 remaining) to win going away.
Londonderry receiver Cole Keegan caught three balls out of the hand of signal-caller McAlister for 64 yards. The LHS quarterback completed nine of the 10 passes he attempted for the aforementioned 98 yards.