By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School Football team secured their spot as the top team in the Division I Central standing at the Mack Plaque game against Pinkerton Academy on Friday night with a 31-6 victory.
The win handed the Astros their first loss of the 2022 season and their sixth consecutive defeat in as many tries against the Lancers going back to 2019.
The win also notched one-point in the Mack Plaques standings, with PA leading 3-1.
Londonderry got off to a very quick start, on the opening kick-off, heading into an extremely hard wind, senior Anthony Amaro found an opening down the far-sideline and sprinted to a 92-yard return, fellow senior, Jack Drabik, added the extra point, for a 7-0 lead just 17-seconds into the contest.
The Astros were not able to score on their opening drive, despite good field position, due to the hard wind.
The Lancers next possession ended with short punt, putting PA at the LHS 45-yard line, but PA failed to take advantage due to the tough Londonderry defense.
The Astros ended that drive with a fourth and seven attempt, resulted in a turn over on downs.
The following LHS possession resulted in another short punt and an interference penalty putting PA in Lancer territory.
In that PA drive, the LHS defense helped their team’s cause with a fumble recovery after a high snap by the PA center on second down.
The Lancer offense then went to work pounding the ball down the field through the end of the first quarter, and finishing that drive with a Drabik 36-yard field goal at 9:09 in the second.
Another strong defensive stand by the Lancers resulted in a PA punt that actually went backwards due to the heavy winds, putting LHS inside the 20-yard line.
One play into that drive resulted in a Lancer TD. Quarterback, Drew Heenan, through a pass to an open Jake Schena in the end-zone to help end the half 17-0.
PA was finally able to get on the board to start the scoring in the third quarter.
Senior Cole Yennaco had a six-yard touchdown run, one play after a long pass from QB Tim Hersom to Caden Michaud to start the second half.
It turned out those were the only points LHS would give up in the game. Londonderry got their third touchdown when senior Andrew Soucy ran in for nine-yards at 1:40 in the third.
Heenan gave the Lancers their fourth touchdown of the evening with pass completed to wide receiver Andrew Kullman for 44-yards and a lopsided victory.
Londonderry had 204 yards of offense in the game to PA’s 133. More than half of the Lancers yards came in the air despite the strong winds.
Heenan was 7-12 in pass attempts with Kullman getting 47-yards on two receptions, Jake Schena got 20-yards on one catch and Matthew Carroll had 19-yard on one reception.
The 97-yards of rushing was spread out to a variety of runners with Schena leading the team with 40-yards on 11 attempts.
On defense, senior Nathan Padrick totaled seven tackles and junior Seth Doyon had four.
The Lancers will travel to Manchester Central on Friday night to take on the winless Little Green.