NASHUA, NH – In what was undoubtedly a litmus test for two Division-I teams that entered Friday night’s clash at Nashua’s Stella’s Stadium with identical 5-1 records, it was the visitors that ran away with the pivotal regular season victory.
Indeed, the Manchester Memorial High School varsity football team traveled to the Gate City and after a close first half that saw the Crusaders head into the locker room with a 19-13 advantage over host Nashua South, they were able to ride a wild fourth quarter to a 46-28 triumph.
The win was an important one for Memorial (6-1), which suffered its first setback of the season in a 30-27 heartbreaker at Winnacunnet last week.
“I mean, going into the Winnacunnet game, we missed three starters going into that game, and our kids were still getting a little adjusted to the speed and the physicality of it, and I think another week, and they were able to get more comfortable, more confident in what they were doing,” said Memorial head coach Rob Sturgis. “We just went back to our basics. We’re a physical, hard-nosed football team, and you might score on us, but you’re going to have to earn it, and offensively, we’re going to run the ball. We’re going to put in our athletes’ hands, and we’re just going to keep going and going. And it was a really good response by our team today.”
The Crusaders twice, in fact, came back from first-half deficits before taking the lead before heading into the locker room for halftime.
The second half began with a three-and-out by South. The Purple Panthers successfully converted a fake punt for the first down, but the play was called back on a penalty, forcing the hosts to punt for real the second time around.
Memorial proceeded to control the ball, and the clock, for the remaining 11 minutes of the quarter, holding a one-score lead heading into the final frame, and then punched the ball in on the opening play of the fourth quarter, which turned out to be the antithesis of the scoreless third.
From that point on. it was the Jacob Schuff show.
The senior – who had already provided a 27-yard first-half touchdown run – found pay dirt three more times in the fourth quarter, sweeping to the outside and then sprinting into the end zone on three-straight possessions, on runs of 71-, 55- and 51-yards, respectively, the last while literally pushing multiple defenders out of the way and carrying another into the end zone. He finished the contest with 253 yards.
“We were concerned about that all week,” said first-year South head coach Josh Porter. “You know, step one this week was we’re going to stop their rocket-toss game, and, we didn’t, right? So it’s never a good sign when you don’t get past step one.”
Schuff and company made that step a hurdle.
“Schuff’s been an incredible player his whole time here,” said Sturgis. “It’s nice for him to get rewarded with all those yards and touchdowns.
“A lot of it goes to the unselfishness of our offense,” noted the coach. “I mean, I think we threw the ball, what, twice today, and being able to do that, it takes a lot. I mean, we’ve got guys that are really good athletes that didn’t get to touch the ball today.”
South’s Cody Jackson provided some highlights of his own, throwing two touchdown passes and punching in a third score.
The Purple Panther (5-2), who handed Bishop Guertin its first loss of the season last week, now look to rebound next week in a challenging road matchup against a 4-2 Merrimack team that’s riding a four-game winning streak into the contest.
“I’m a big proponent of playing our best ball towards the end of the year,” said Porter. “So, you know, we hit a hiccup tonight. It’s bounce back, and let’s still be trending upward as we head into the end of the year.”
And next week doesn’t get any easier for the Crusaders either with undefeated Pinkerton, the defending state champs, coming to Manchester for a home test at 6:30 p.m.
“Pinkerton’s really good,” said Sturgis. “They’ve got athletes. they’re kind of like us. They suck you in with all the run stuff and then all of a sudden their athletes, ‘bang,’ they’re gone … so it’ll be a really good test. But I like our kids’ chances with anybody when we play our game. And tonight was a good example of just complimentary football and playing our style of football.”
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