NASHUA, N.H. – Give Plymouth High credit. The Bobcats landed the first shot.
Putting undefeated and barely tested Pelham High in a 6-0 Division II state title game, second-quarter hole was a victory on Saturday.
It was Plymouth’s last win of the day. The Pythons absolutely crushed it over the final 35:55 in every facet of the game, stomping their way to a 35-6 victory, No. 41 in a row for the program’s fourth straight state title, fifth in history.
“As a senior, as a captain, it feels a little more, your team,” said Dom Herrling, one of 11 Pelham seniors closing out their high school football careers without ever tasting defeat. “And it feels great. I’m so proud of my teammates, so happy.”
The Tristan Patridge 8-yard TD run on the opening play of the second quarter put Pelham behind on the scoreboard for the first time all season. In fact, you have to go all the way back to October 21 of last year for the last time Pelham actually played from behind.
You never would have known. The Pythons looked totally comfortable.
It took three plays (plus Colby Crear’s PAT kick) and 90 seconds for Pelham to claim the lead for good.
Jake Ciulla ran for 9 and then 5 yards before Connor Travis exploded on a 56-yard dash to paydirt for the 7-6 lead.
“We’ve never been down the whole season,” said Herrling, whose club had run a total of six plays in the first quarter, netting -3 yards. “We knew that next drive we had to show them who was coming out harder. We hit them in the mouth, and they couldn’t withstand it.”
From that point on, Memphis Patterson, Diego Jiminez, Aiden Lynch and the Pelham defense forced five successive Plymouth three-and-outs.
“I don’t know if it ignited us, but it woke us up a little bit. We just played football after that,” said Pythons coach Tom Babaian. “There was no panic. The kids haven’t panicked all year. We knew we had to play another half, and we’d get our shot.”
Like nearly every second of this and the past four unbeaten seasons, it was awe-inspiring.
“Their touchdown woke us up. It put our backs to the wall a little bit, and we haven’t had that all year. We got a change of perspective,” said Patterson. “Last year’s state final was more of a game about secondary play. This year was about the boys on the line, an up-front game, bully ball, and we liked that.”
The offense just kept rolling.
Herrling made it 14-6 before halftime with a 12-yard TD run then pumped things to 21-6 midway through the third on a 14-yarder.
Plymouth finally moved the chains, via a Pelham unsportsmanlike flag, and eased into the red zone late in the third. But on a fourth-and-goal from the 3 on the first play of the fourth, Justin Bowlan picked off the Bobcat pass – one of five Python picks on the day – to snuff out any final breath Plymouth might muster.
“This is what they do. They shut people down and they do it well. They’ve done it all year,” said Babaian of his defense which posted six shutouts including last week’s semifinals – allowing 49 points all season.
“(Plymouth) is a good football team. We concentrated on their running game, and making sure we didn’t give up any big plays in the passing game.”
Check. And check.
East Division champion Plymouth, which imposed its will on the ground in last week’s semis over Souhegan, would have no such luck on Saturday. Plymouth, the last team to score a victory over Pelham football back in the 2019 state quarters, was limited to just 83 yards on 32 runs and 41 yards through the air ( 2 for 20 with the five INTs).
Nick Muise and Jake Ciulla added fourth-quarter TD runs to pad the lead for Pelham, which chewed up 311 yards of Stellos Stadium turf on 39 rushes in the win.
“Coach had a game plan all week, talking about physicality,” said Muise, the quarterback/safety. “We got down with that first touchdown, we came back. We knew what had to be done.”
They certainly did.
Pelham 35, Plymouth 6
Pelham (11-0): 0 14 7 14 – 35
Plymouth (10-2): 0 6 0 0 – 6
Second Quarter
PLY – Tristan Patridge 8 run (run failed), 11:55
PEL – Connor Travis 56 run (Colby Crear kick), 10:25
PEL – Dom Herrling 12 run (Crear kick), 2:13
Third Quarter
PEL – Herrling 14 run (Crear kick), 6:38
Fourth Quarter
PEL – Nick Muise 1 run (Crear kick), 6:27
PEL – Jake Ciulla 51 run (Crear kick), 4:18
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: PELHAM (39-311): Connor Travis 6-94, Jake Ciulla 11-90, Dom Herrling 12-82, Nick Muise 6-34, Junior MacKinnon 4-11; Plymouth (32-83): Tristan Patridge 9-37, Ben Valenti 8-17, Luke Diamond 5-17, Robbie Thorn 6-9, Gabe Kean 1-5, Caedon Manseau 3-(-2)
PASSING: PEL – Muise 6-11-1, 70; PLY – Diamond 2-19-5, 41; Thorn 0-1-0, 0
RECEIVING: PEL – MacKinnon 2-37, Travis 2-23, Herrling 2-10; PLY – Brennan Johnson 1-33, Jaxon Rineer 1-8