Cavs clinch playoff spot

Friday, November 4, 2011

Joe Marchilena photo Hollis/Brookline's Colin Pellerin tries to avoid a tackle by a Milford player during Friday's game. The Cavaliers won 35-14.

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Next Game

Hollis/Brookline (6-1) at Goffstown (6-1), Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

The Cavaliers and Grizzlies will be playing for a home playoff game in the Division III semifinals on Nov. 12.

HOLLIS – The Hollis/Brookline High School football team is done with its check list.

Now the Cavaliers will be shooting for one more game at home.

Sean Connors scored three touchdowns, two on passes from Kyle Gervais, and Colin Pellerin added two scores to lead H/B to a 35-14 win over Milford under the rented lights in Hollis.

It was the Cavs’ first win over the Spartans, the third of three teams that H/B had never defeated before this season, with Souhegan and Portsmouth being the others. Now the Cavs (6-1 in Division III, 7-1 overall) are in position to clinch the first home playoff game in program history on Saturday when they play at Goffstown.

“It’s another monkey off our back, beating Milford, because we had never beaten them before,” H/B coach Milt Robinson said. “They’re a good football team, but our guys weren’t going to be denied. They wanted this one bad.”

Pellerin finished with 108 yards rushing with touchdown runs of 1 and 16 yards, while Connors caught touchdown passes of 47 and 33 yards from Gervais. Both Pellerin and Connors also each had an interception of Milford’s Harrison Urda in the first half.

Kyle Higgins led Milford (2-5, 3-6) with 98 yards rushing and a touchdown, while Urda also had a touchdown for the Spartans.

“I thought they played inspired,” Milford coach Keith Jones said. “They never gave up. That’s a good team obviously. We had them on the ropes at times and we came out with some crazy stuff at the beginning.”

The Spartans opened the game with an onside kick, and for the second time in two weeks, Urda executed it successfully. Then, facing a fourth-and-3 at the H/B 43, Milford surprised the Cavs again, lining up with an unbalanced line and Urda hit Brett Stagnone for a first down.

Two plays later, Urda scrambled for 17 yards to give Milford another first down at the H/B 18, but on the next play, Pellerin intercepted a pass at the 5-yard line to end the threat.

“They came out with some funky stuff for us and we were able to adjust,” Robinson said. “The pick was huge. They tried to do some different stuff to us that we’ve never seen before but we were able to adjust to it and once we did that, we were OK.”

Gervais found Connors wide open for a 47-yard scoring pass on that drive, and H/B forced a Milford punt. But with Urda back near his goal line, the ball was snapped over his head and went out of the end zone for a safety.

The Cavs got the ball back at the Milford 13, and four plays later, Pellerin scored from 1 yard out to make it 16-0.

H/B went up 29-0 on another touchdown run by Pellerin and a scoring pass from Gervais to Connors, but Milford made it 29-6 before halftime. The Spartans scored on the opening drive of the second half, and successfully went for two to make it 29-14 with 5:38 left in the third quarter.

“They started killing us with that speed sweep,” Robinson said. “We didn’t really figure out how to stop it for a little while and they were really gashing it on us. I don’t know if we had a little letdown because of the score. That’s good for us, too. We want to be challenged because we have challenges coming up.”

Connors added his third touchdown on H/B’s next drive to make it 35-14.

H/B will travel to Goffstown (6-1) on Saturday with the winner earning no worse than the No. 2 seed in the division.

“We clinched a playoff spot,” Robinson said. “Next week is for a home playoff game for the two teams. It’s like a playoff game for both teams. That should get us fired up for that game because we’d like to play here one more time.”