Last week was quite a memorable span for Londonderry High football coach Jimmy Lauzon and the folks around him.
Just as the week was getting started Lauzon and his wife Christina welcomed their third child into the family, and at the end of the work week the coach and his gridders kicked off their 2018 season with a 49-7 sinking of the Portsmouth High ClipperCats on the seacoast on the night of Friday, Aug. 31.
It was the first game ever in the history of the new co-op football team established by the Portsmouth and Oyster River school districts, but alas the contest won’t be remembered fondly as Londonderry simply dominated the youthful opponent.
Lauzon’s Lancers tallied some 35 unanswered points in the first quarter and rolled to the huge victory, which left an already smiling LHS head coach praising his charges in the aftermath of the blowout success.
“There were definitely some positives,” he said. “We only had one penalty, we won the tunrover battle, and our special teams played great. It’s always nice to start the season off with a win.”
The victorious locals tallied 251 yards worth of offense while holding Portsmouth under 100 (82). And Londonderry began its big evening by scoring points less than 20 seconds into the action.
Jake Holland ran the opening kick-off back 84 yards to paydirt and Zack Chau added the first of his five extra-points of that huge first period as LHS notched a lead it wouldn’t come close to relinquishing.
That touchdown would be followed by a 3-yard scoring push by Jeff Wiedenfeld, a 25-yard TD pass from Evan Cormier to Alex Tsetsilas (set up by a Jake McEachern interception), a 19-yard scoring toss connecting Cormier and Tsetsilas, and finally a blocked punt which Wiedenfeld picked up and ran into the end zone from 20 yards out.
There would be no more scoring in the half, but with the 35-0 lead established the game clock went on running time to start the second. And the Lancers lifted their commanding lead to 42-0 with a 10-yard scoring sprint from Mason Marquis in the first two minutes of the fourth stanza, with Ethan May adding the extra-point.
Marquis would put the final touches on the LHS scoring – after Portsmouth had notched its only points of the night – when with just 1:39 to go in the game the senior back ran 28 yards to pay-dirt.
Marquis finished up as Londonderry’s top yardage-gainer with 76 on eight carries. All in all the victors collected some 207 yards via their ground game.
The Lancers will play their 2018 home-opener Friday night, Sept. 7, against a Salem High Blue Devils’ squad that beat Exeter High by a 28-7 tally in its home season-starter last week.