PELHAM, N.H. – History now awaits the Pelham High football team.
Winners now of 40 straight games, the three-time defending state champion Pythons bulled their way into their fourth straight Division II state championship game with a 14-0 win over Saint Thomas of Dover.
“We don’t talk about the streak a lot, but of course it makes you sit back and realize how special this is,” said senior Ciulla, who led the winners with 94 yards on 20 carries in the win. “Although, it means nothing unless we go all the way.”
Pelham will now face Plymouth High, the No. 2 seed and Eastern Conference champ, which improved to 10-1 on the year with a 21-20 win over No. 3 Souhegan on Saturday in the title game at Stellos Stadium in Nashua.
The season and the historic winning streak was put to the test against Saint Thomas.
“It was a ugly win,” said Pelham coach Tom Babaian after the game. “Hats off to them, they played a really good game, and we did not play our best football.”
After a long drive to begin the game, Pelham got on the board on a Nick Muise quarterback keeper from one yard out.
Later in the second quarter, Muise found Connor Travis for a 16-yard touchdown, which would be the final score of the game between two heavyweight offenses.
Heading into Saturday’s game, Muise only threw for 36 passes the entire season. In the first half versus the Saints, the senior threw nine times.
“Our offense was unable to move the ball in the first half, so we had to change something,” said Babaian. “We had to go to the air to get some points on the board, but we didn’t do a lot of things well today.”
Ciulla played the clock-killer role quite nicely in the second half with Pelham keeping the Saint Thomas offense off the field..
“They run the same offense as us, so they were familiar with some of the formations,” said Ciulla. “I think we all know we could have played a lot better.”
Babaian knows his team will need to play better next week against Plymouth, a tradition-rich program with 22 state titles on its resume.
“We’ll see what we learn from (our players) in practice, and see what their attitude is heading into next week,” said Babaian.
Follow Evan Applebaum on Twitter: @EvanApplebaum2.
Pelham 14, St. Thomas Aquinas 0
Pelham – 7 7 0 0 – 14
St. Thomas Aquinas – 0 0 0 0 – 0
First Quarter:
P – Nick Muise 1 rush (Colby Crear kick), 2:53
Second Quarter:
P – Connor Travis 16 pass from Muise (Crear kick), 7:36
Pelham Individual Leaders:
RUSHING – Jake Ciulla 20-94, Dom Herrling 13-85, Connor Travis 7-17, Junior McKinnon 3-4, Nick Muise 2-3, Justin Bowlan 1-24
PASSING – Nick Muise 6-9, 59 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
RECEIVING – Travis 2-29, Herrling 2-21, Ciulla 1-5, Nolan Monette 1-4