Crushed

Friday, November 25, 2011

Joe Marchilena photo Bedford's James Caparell sits on the bench following the Bulldogs' 41-6 loss to Portsmouth in the Division III championship game.

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Joe Marchilena photo Bedford coach Kurt Hines shakes hands with captain Matt Poremba after Bedford lost to Portsmouth in the Division III championship game.

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Joe Marchilena photo Bedford's Joe Thibeault stops Portsmouth's Billy Lane during Saturday's game.

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Joe Marchilena photo Bedford's Jordan Garron, left, and Matt Poremba watch as Portsmouth receives the Division III championship plaque.

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Joe Marchilena photo The Portsmouth defense piles on top of Bedford quarterback James Caparell during Saturday's Division III championship game. The Bulldogs lost to the Clippers 41-6.

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Joe Marchilena photo Bedford's James Caparell sits on the bench following the Bulldogs' 41-6 loss to Portsmouth in the Division III championship game.

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BEDFORD – All the Portsmouth High School football team needed was one big play.

Once the Clippers got it, that big play led to another one. And another one. And another one . . .

All those big plays added up to a big win, as No. 4 Portsmouth finally got the championship it’s been searching for, beating No. 2 Bedford 41-6 in the Division III final Saturday at Bedford High School.

The title comes in the Clippers’ fourth straight championship game appearance, and fifth in six years, and is the first for Portsmouth since 1981, when it beat Salem for the Division I title. Portsmouth is also the first No. 4 seed to win in Division III since Laconia did it in 1999.

“I think the kids really wanted it,” Portsmouth coach Bill Murphy said. “I think we had something to prove. The ball got rolling, and when the ball got rolling, everybody fed off each other. I didn’t expect that. I hoped to win, but I didn’t expect that we’d be able to do as well as we did.”

Portsmouth did it by holding Bedford to minus-63 yards rushing, including five sacks of quarterback James Caparell. While Caparell was 16 of 30 for 231 yards and a touchdown, he was forced out of the pocket several times and was plagued by a number of drops.

“We had a real hard time moving the ball, obviously, and they were bringing a lot of pressure,” Bedford coach Kurt Hines said. “We just couldn’t stop them. The pressure they brought with four down linemen and the backers, that was huge. They did a real good job.”

Billy Lane ran for 128 yards and three touchdowns, and also had an interception on defense, while Bill Hartmann was 10 of 17 for 133 yards and a score.

But Portsmouth (8-3) got off to a slow start, as both of its first two drives ended in a lost fumble. Bedford (7-4) let the Clippers off the hook both times, getting nothing out of the takeaways.

The game was scoreless in the second quarter when Portsmouth cranked up the pressure on defense. A third-down sack of Caparell and a short punt gave the Clippers the ball at Bedford’s 41, and on the first play, Lane took the option pitch from Hartmann and went the distance to put the Clippers up 7-0.

Another third-down sack forced a Bedford punt, but the Bulldogs appeared to get a break when Peter Hamblett fumbled the fair catch and they recovered.

But an inadvertent whistle before the fumble forced a replay of the down, and this time, Bedford’s Brian Collins couldn’t get the punt off, giving Portsmouth the ball at the Bulldogs’ 16-yard line.

Lane scored again on the first play to make it 14-0, and two Bedford fumbles led to field goals by Charlie Duprey, making it 20-0 Portsmouth at halftime.

Bedford’s offense finally started to move in the third quarter, but after the Bulldogs drove down to the Portsmouth 32, Caparell was strip-sacked and Portsmouth’s Ricky Holt recovered to end the drive.

The Bulldogs forced a three-and-out and got in the end zone on a 36-yard pass from Caparell to Collins, but an injury to kicker Mike Gardiner forced Bedford to go for two. Caparell’s run came up short, making it 20-6 Portsmouth with 4:39 left in the third.

The Clippers answered right back on Hartmann’s 14-yard scoring pass to Hamblett and Portsmouth poured it on in the fourth quarter.

“They’ve gone through disappointment a number of times and they’ve worked hard for this,” Murphy said. “This is something that we’ve really wanted and we’ve come that close. We got over the hump. Once we got the ball rolling, we feed off the emotion.”