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Sabers open with defeat at John Stark


McQuarrie leads Generals to 35-14 win over Souhegan

WEARE – Drew Mc­Quarrie 18, Souhegan 14.

While that wasn’t what the scoreboard said at John Stark Regional High School on Saturday after­noon, the highly-touted quarterback proved that the preseason buzz wasn’t just hyperbole, leading the Generals to a 35-14 victory.

John Stark got on the board with their first pos­session of the day – a five-play, 80-yard drive capped with a goal-line run by Kyle Booker. Souhegan quickly countered less than a minute later, with Dante Savo going 66 yards to the house on the Sa­bers’ second play from scrimmage.

The Sabers kept things close, due in large part to Savo. He added a second rushing touchdown later in the half, followed by another Booker score on the following drive.

McQuarrie put the Gen­erals ahead on a 4-yard touchdown run just be­fore the half, but the home team wouldn’t be able to put the game away until the fourth quarter. That’s when McQuarrie broke away for a 28-yard touch­down run to truly seal the victory.

He tacked on a third score halfway through the quarter for insurance, with John Stark’s defense holding the Sabers de­spite a late six-minute drive that ended on downs in the red zone just before time expired.

Savo ended the day with 145 yards on 16 rushing at­tempts, serving as the fig­urative fastball alongside the changeup of Souhe­gan’s five other rushers, who totaled a combined 91 yards on 29 attempts.

"We knew that we’d be able to run the ball against them, it might be a type of shootout situa­tion, so that doesn’t come as any surprise to us," Souhegan head coach Mike Lochman said. "Our offensive line worked re­ally hard in the offseason and they showed us some­thing as a group, so we’re happy there."

However, Souhegan quarterback Palmer Be­lowski struggled in the air, connecting on only one of six passing attempts, which included an inter­ception late in the second quarter.

The Sabers were also able to grab a pick off McQuarrie, but that was about the only major mis­take he had on the day – finishing with 100 rushing yards on 17 carriers and going 15 for 25 in the air for 159 yards.

Add that performance to a pair of third-quarter Souhegan fumbles and Lochman concluded it just wasn’t his team’s day.

"I think we did some things really well, but at the end of the day, they had some good players and we made some mis­takes," he said. "And you can’t make mistakes against a team that good."