RallyNorth.net

Astros down stubborn Concord

Monday, October, 17 By Chuck Frye

DERRY — Instead of showing the rest of N.H. how to beat Pinkerton a week ago, Brockton may have opened up the Astros to some introspection.

"We had said to our team last week that it wasn't Brockton that beat us, it was ourselves," said head coach Brian O'Reilly. "We didn't play the way we needed to play and we needed to recommit ourselves."

Even with that message in mind, the Astros struggled through a sloppy first half. But their defense stepped up in response, forcing four turnovers and scoring a touchdown in a 25-7 victory.

Providing more resistance than one would expect from a 1-7 team, Concord was sturdy on the defensive side of the ball. Linemen Tim Rochon and Seth Gosse were nuisances to Pinkerton's running game, Ndi Walters forced a fumble, Sam Rabuck recovered a pair of Astro fumbles and Braden Gallucci added a pass interception.

"If (Concord) takes away the outside — which they kind of did today — and we struggle to go on the inside, that's blocking," O'Reilly said of a ground attack that generated 4 1/2 yards per carry against the Crimson Tide. "Right now, it's a little bit of an issue. But Concord is a lot better defensively than many teams in our league, some of which are going to the playoffs."

The Astros (7-1) had other issues with the ball, turning an opening kickoff fumble recovery by Austin Maylor right back over to Concord on an interception and getting whistled for six penalties, one that wiped out an Emmitt Smith 18-yard gain and another that took Smith's 20-yard touchdown run off the board.

But even with the problems, Pinkerton jumped on several short fields to find the end zone. Manny Latimore wrapped up a quick 34-yard first-quarter march with a 4-yard touchdown run followed by two short end zone jaunts by Kevin Davies (game-high 84 yards), one set up at the Concord 34 by Andrew Curran's first interception and the other on a failed onside kick to start the second half.

Curran wrapped up the scoring late in the third quarter, swiping another Concord pass and following the strong blocking of Adam Olson 35 yards to the end zone.

"My job was to cover the flats about 12 yards deep and everything short," said Curran, who also swatted away three other passes on the day. "I'm supposed to pick up the receiver running to the sidelines and (Concord) threw everything at me. It probably was my best game in the secondary so far this season."

Linebacker Branden Rodgers (six tackles, two for loss) along with defensive ends Olson (two sacks and six other tackles) and Cody Desmarais (1 1/2 sacks) also propped up the Astro defense.

"It gives (the offense) confidence that, if they don't score, they know that the defense will back them up and help them out whenever they're in trouble," Curran said.