After putting in countless hours of work since August and having just one victory in seven tries to show for it, the Londonderry High football team needed the positive reinforcement of a win last week.
Thanks to some awful weather and scheduling challenges, the Lancers began seeking that victory against a winless Manchester Memorial Crusaders in sopping-wet conditions at LHS Friday night, Oct. 21, and by the early evening of Sunday Oct. 23 the now 2-6 gridders had a 39-7 blowout win of which they could be proud.
Part one of the home game consisted of the entire first quarter and the very beginning of the second, played in a driving rain.
The 0-7 visiting Crusaders grasped a slim, 7-6 lead as the second stanza began after the Lancers had snagged a 6-0 advantage on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Jake Stevens to Cam MacDonald less than three minutes after the opening kickoff.
The ensuing point-after touchdown failed, and Memorial was able to snare the lead in the final seconds of the quarter on an 11-yard touchdown run that was followed by the successful PAT try.
The opponents then had to cool their jets through Saturday and resume play late in the afternoon on Sunday, Oct. Â 23 at Londonderry High.
And when that resumption occurred, the conditions were dry and extremely windy.
The hosts tallied 13 unanswered points in the second quarter to claim the lead for good and all, with the eventual winning points coming on a one-yard touchdown jaunt by Eric Doran with 3:51 left in the period.
And the Lancers went up by a 19-7 margin with just under a minute left in the half when Stevens and MacDonald connected for a score again, this time on a nine-yard toss.
It became a 25-7 contest with four minutes gone in the third period when signal-caller Stevens carried the football across the goal line from a yard out, and Londonderry managed 14 more unanswered points in the fourth quarter, thanks to a 35-yard touchdown pass from Ben Johnson to Pete Navarro that was followed by a 45-yard scoring run by Jeff Wiedenfeld. Pat Zepf hit the point-after kicks following both scores.
Quarterbacks Stevens and Johnson ended up combining for 170 passing yards, with senior Stevens hitting on 10 of the 22 tosses he lofted skyward. Navarro was the recipient of five of those for a total of 108 yards. Stevens also ran for 67 yards to pace the LHS ground game, which tallied a total of 221 yards.
“Every week has been a very challenging game. We just keep coming up just short in a lot of tight ones, so it was nice to have a lopsided win,” said LHS coach Jimmy Lauzon. “The most pleasing aspects were shutting them out today and playing the way we’re capable of playing on defense. Offensively, we weren’t as smooth as we wanted to be, but the heavy wind made it hard for us to be balanced and throw the ball. Throwing is a strength of ours, and when we can’t throw it effectively it’s tough. But we found ways to make plays today.”
Londonderry will be closing out its 2016 season this coming Friday night, Oct. 28, on its home field with a battle against the visiting Timberlane Owls from Plaistow, who have gone 0-7 since starting their campaign with a 48-20 thumping of Manchester Memorial at the beginning of September.
The Lancer defense battered its Memorial High opponents and allowed them just one touchdown during a two-day game. Photo by Chris Paul