The Londonderry High School Football squad did what they needed to during their quarter-final match-up with the Nashua South Purple Panthers. Winning by a score of 28-13, at home, on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 16.
The victory will send the number three seeded Lancers to Exeter, the number two seed, next Saturday in the semifinals, being played at the Bill Ball Stadium at Exeter High School, starting at 1 p.m.
Most of the LHS damage was done by way of a running attack. The Lancers finish the game with nearly 400-yards rushing, but were only able to gain four-yards in the air.
They were pretty vulnerable to the Nashua passing game, giving up 122-passing-yards to the Purple Panthers.
Junior running-back Adrian Cruz piled up nearly 200-yards of offense on the ground, finishing the game with 198-yards on 23 carries.
Senior quarterback Sam Ogden tallied 86- running-yards with 16 attempts and sophomore Jordan Ball ran for 49-yards in seven carries.
On the defensive side of the ball, senior Cooper Freitas had five tackles and senior Alex Villa totaled four.
Senior Matt Luongo, sophomore Noah Rao, senior Zachary Ventura and senior Cameron Ayotte each had three tackles in the game.
Londonderry began the game with a touchdown in the first series. Starting at their 40-yard line, it took just seven plays to get into the endzone.
Cruz had runs with 15-, 2- and 25-yard gains before crossing the goal-line from the one-yard line to start the contest at 6-0.
Senior kicker, Blake Thompson made it a seven-point lead, three-minutes into the game.
Thompson started the game, just five, extra-points shy of a LHS record.
Nashua stumbled immediately following the touchdown, giving up the ball after the kick-off with a fumble recovered by junior Brandon Dyer at the Nashua 21-yard-line.
Cruz quickly got his second touchdown of the game, running 15-yards on the third play of the drive and putting his team up by 13-points.
Thompson followed with his second successful extra-point of the game for a 14-0 Lancer lead.
The Purple Panthers responded with a touchdown before the first quarter ended, but was unable to convert a two-point play after the score, making it a 14-6 LHS lead.
Senior Alex Villa took over as quarterback in the Lancers third drive, leading the team to their third touchdown of the game.
Villa had 26-yards running, while Cruz added 24, until senior Jon Inglese scored on a six-yard run. Thompson made it 21-6 with his third successful extra-point.
Nashua South quickly bounced back, making it 21-13 with just under three-minutes before the end of the half.
Londonderry scored in their first possession in the third quarter.
The Lancer defense quickly forced a three-and-out to start the second half, giving LHS the ball at their nine-yard line.
From there, it took 11-plays before Cruz got his third TD of the game, running it in from the two-yard line at 4:15 in the third quarter.
Both teams settled for a scoreless final quarter, giving the Lancers a 28-13 victory.
Next week, the Lancers will have to figure out how to win at Exeter High School if they want to compete in their fourth-straight championship final.
The Lancers lost at EHS 21-10 in the final game of the regular season and have lost in the last two championships played there.
The game against Exeter is scheduled for this Saturday at 1 p.m.