Portsmouth @ Souhegan

Portsmouth over Souhegan 22-15...was only there for the second half heard about the first half, but i'll give a few thoughts about the game after i'm done dinner, unless someone beats me too it.

Got there with about 10 seconds left in the 2nd quarter in which there was a last second heave from about the 35ish from Mccormick it was picked off. I found out not to much later that was Souhegan's 6th turnover of the 1ST HALF! Yikes don't know how they managed to have that many turnovers and only to be down 22-6. And all I heard about Portsmouth Scores was they had solid field position and took advantage of a few of the turnovers.

The 2nd half was pretty ugly Souhegan must've turned it over 3 or 4 more times and Portsmouth probably had the same. Numerous flags as well. Portsmouth had a chance to open it up early in the 2nd half as Souhegan decided to go for it on 4 and 4 on there own 35 and they were stopped. Portsmouth had a solid Punt Return and began to drive. They got to about the 5 or 6 and ran option, pitched to Billy Lane and he got in but it was called back, due to holding. Portsmouth really shot themselves in the foot a lot of times as they had great field position for most of the second half but they'd get a penalty or 2 and constantly put themselves in 2nd or 3rd in a mile. I was a little shocked that Portsmouth didn't try and use Billy Lane more in the 3rd and even early in the 4th to try and put the game away on the ground the continued to throw the ball and didn't have great success as they had quite a few drops and again penalties, and Souhegan started to get some good pressure getting a few sacks later in the 3rd continuing into the 4th. Souhegan's offense was rather anemic while I watched. I don't know if Mccormick was benched or hurt but #14 for Souhegan came in, and gave them a different look running a lot of trey and trap. I thought he played well got the offense going a little bit kids real shifty. It was still 22-6 going into the 4th and it didn't look like Portsmouth's defense was going to let Souhegan get back into this game.

The 4th was a lot of the same rather sloppy but more now by Portsmouth. Souhegan began to get some pressure and forced some TO's. Souhegan put a solid drive together mixing in some run and pass out of the gun mixing in the T as well. Mccormick had come back in and he connected with his slot who slipped a tackle at the 10ish and scored, with about 7 or 8 left in the game Souhegan went for 2 to make it a 8 point game but failed. If I recall correctly Souhegan again got a strip sack and pounced on the ball. Souhegan with solid field position couldn't get to much going and had to settle for a field goal cutting the lead to 7 with about 5 minutes left. Again I was shocked that prior to this next drive Portsmouth didn't try and pound the rock and use up the clock, Souhegan didn't look as big as years past and I don't think they would've stopped it, but finally now only up 7 Portsmouth went into the inverted wishbone (never seen this out of them before) and rode Billy Lane and one of there FB's. Souhegan with only 2 timeouts gave up 2 or 3 first downs and started using those TO's. They stopped Portsmouth on 4 and 2 but there was only 3 seconds left and they were on there own 20 and would've needed a miracle which didn't come. I thought Portsmouth D was very good great combo of speed and size. They clogged the middle and got pressure up front and there DB's blanketed the Souhegan wideouts for most of the 2nd half. Offensively they need to fix somethings but I'd say they have a great shot at ending Souhegan's run at a 4th title. Souhegan needs to clean up a lot on offense, it's tough they lost a lot last year but they'll be solid as always, think they may need to go to a more balanced offensive look. From what I saw in the 2nd half they did a solid job on defense in getting pressure they defended a short field a lot of the 3rd and some of the 4th and made stands (PHS penalties assisted them in some of these stops)

Congrats to the Clippers, I know this win meant a LOT to those kids!