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Sports Talk

CHEERLEADING

Jr. Cavaliers repeats as
Division 10 state champs

The Hollis Brookline Junior Cavaliers shined at the 2015 New Hampshire State Cheerleading Championship held Oct. 31 at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester.

The Division 10 and 14 squads competed at this event, alongside 86 other teams consisting of more than 1,000 athletes.

Led by Coach of the Year Melissa Scherer, t he Division 10 girls proved once again why they are No. 1, rocking the complex with their astonishing championship-winning routine. It’s the second straight state title for the D-10 squad, which is headed to the AYF/AYC New England Regional Championship held at UMass Amherst in Amherst, Mass., on Nov. 22.

The Division 14 team gave it their all, finishing their season with an amazing performance.

FOOTBALL

Junior Cavaliers

JV 50, Merrimack Valley 26

The Hollis Brookline Junior Cavaliers traveled to Merrimack Valley in a must-win game to keep playoff hopes alive. Marc-Andre Thermitus returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and added five more TD’s as the Junior Cavaliers went on to win 50-26.

Quarterbacks Wyatt Bingham and Blake Bergerson had a great day passing the ball. Bingham had a touchdown pass to Tyler Thibodeau as well as a PAT conversion to Avery Gillespie. Jack Delaney converted several PAT’s in addition to Keith Hubert.

The success that HB had scoring on the long runs by Thermitus and the tough running inside the tackles by Teddy Moscatelli and Jack Delaney would not have been possible without stellar blocking up front by Josh Parr, Jack Duquette, Connor Ramage, Torin White, Henry Burns, Bill Lawson and Toby Kinney,

Defensively Jack Delaney and Shaan Quereshy had interceptions for the Jr. Cavs.

The Jr. Cavs JV team is in the playoffs. They’ll be traveling to Gilford for an 11 a.m. Saturday game.

Varsity 24, Kearsarge 20

It was a must-win game to keep playoff chances alive for the Junior Cavaliers varisty team.

Behind the dynamic duo of Quinten Wimmer running the ball hard inside and A.J. Johnson using speed to get the ball to the outside they were able to keep the offensive drives alive for the Jr. Cavs on their way to a 24-20 win over the Kearsarge Wildcats.

The Jr. Cavs were trailing the Wildcats 6-0 early in the first quarter until Johnson returned a punt for 40 yards to set up the Jr. Cavs first score by Wimmer that tied the game 6-6.

The Wildcats would strike again early in the second quarter to take a 12-6 lead into halftime.

Having won the coin toss the Wildcats deferred to the second half and the defense of the Jr. Cavs held a surging Wildcats’ offense to a turnover on downs. With a steady dose of Wimmer and Johnson pounding the ball, Johnson was able to score behind an excellent block by Shea Philbrook.

The Jr. Cavs’ defense was once again able to cause a fumble which they recovered putting the offense back on the field. Wimmer would take advantage of the turnover scoring his second touchdown of the game behind great downfield blocking by Kyle Manley. In the 4th quarter Wimmer would score again to seal the win for the Jr. Cavs, who visit Bow on Sunday morning.

Sports Talk

JR. BULLDOGS

FOOTBALL

Tiny Mite

The TM’ers closed out the regular season with another to-the-wire finish with the Amherst Patriots. This was a low-scoring game of ball possession, and the infamous Black Offense had the morning’s most impressive drive. On the 2nd play of the series, Dogs QB Hudson Schmitt connected with Trenton Otero for the season’s longest pass play of 30 yards. Logan O’Connell then ran three times and picked up a critical 1st down before Otero was able to hit paydirt on a bootleg TD sprint.

The Bulldogs spread the ball around to 8 different backs, with impressive runs by Tristin Leck and Jack Petrosino behind the impenetrable offensive line work of Noah Humphrey and Gavin McCConnell. Teddy Bond played the entire game at center delivering accurate snaps all morning.

On defense, Beau Dunker, Carter Rick and dog bone-winner Sam Doty were tenacious as the Dogs gang tackled and swarmed Amherst ballcarriers. LB Andre Steinbrueck was all over the field playing as Lawrence Taylor reincarnate.

On the biggest play for the Bedford D, Jack Petrosino and Nolan Murphy sandwiched a Patriots back forcing a fumble that was recovered by Drew Redfern. Bedford will close out the 2015 season in the TM Super Bowl against Manchester Black.

Mitey Mite Silver

Mighty Might Silver won on Sunday against the Amherst Patriots, 20-6. Evan Dunker led the offense for most of the day at QB, connecting with Dean Poltronieri and Ronan Balistreri on long pass plays.

Ledger Russell crossed into the end zone twice and Jack Riso pounded through the Amherst line for a third touchdown. Extra points were earned the hard way by Mighty Might rookies Kaeden Elmer and the aforementioned Dean, with Hunter Crowley nearly converting a third time. Thirteen Bulldogs ran the ball, with notable runs from Aaron Chmielecki, Brady Jackson, Brady Champagne, Zach Elmer and Dominic Carey.

The Bedford defensive line owned the Amherst offense, with big tackles from Brody Cassidy and Tyrece Sealey on the interior and Danny Black and Justin Chiras on the outside. Nick Polishan blew through the offensive line several times, finishing the day with two quarterback sacks.

The ever present Charlie Cariello cleaned up several tackles from his safety position. Mighty Might Silver plays the Seacoast Titans in the Superbowl next weekend.

Jr. Pee Wee Red

The Dogs squared off against the Cats in the last game of the regular season. The Jr. Pee Wee Red football team defeated the NH Jr. Wildcats 19-6 securing the 2nd seed in the New Hampshire Pop Warner state playoffs. The Jr. Bulldogs first possession featured nice running by Owen Christopher and Josh Tobin. William Kramer capped the drive off with a TD after breaking it to the outside and tight-roped his way into the endzone for his first of 3 TDs on the day. The Cats denied the Dogs on the first 2 PATs but Tobin ran a QB draw on the 3rd PAT to cap the scoring off for the Dogs. The Dogs defense smothered the Cats from start to finish allowing only 1 score. Tobin, Thomas Rice, Andrew McGee Jackson Bolduc, Ben Stuart, Aidan McMonigle, Joey Piacentini and Mathew Vranich played like a pack of junk yard dogs and were constant fixtures in the Cat’s backfield making tackles for losses. The Jr. Pee Wee Red football team will square off against the Seacoast Titans in the State Semi Finals on Wednesday night at Donati field in Hooksett.

Jr. Pee Wee Silver

The JPW Silver team had nothing but smiles and high fives when TJ O’Connell recovered a fumble on the second play from scrimmage. Aiden "All Day" O’Connell took it to the house on the second play on offense, but the kick was blocked. Worcester answered on the next kickoff and split the uprights on the conversion to take the lead. Parker "Diesel" Bromley left the crowd with their jaws wide open as he carried the opponents in true "Gronk" fashion. On fourth and goal from the five yard yard line, Diesel, on his fifth carry, was hit at the line of scrimmage, but somehow willed himself into the end zone behind the great blocking of Cal McAuliffe, Alex Wafer, Seamus Balisteri, Ryan Cote and AJ Crevelling. Joe Mikol booted the two point conversion to tie the game at 14. Worcester scored again to take the lead 20-14. This started an amazing, sustained drive that included some pinpoint completions from TJ O’Connell to Cam Healy and Joe Mikol. The clock was at .7 seconds when Aiden "All Day" O’Connell received a pitch in heavy traffic and somehow stepped up and hurled the ball into the air and in acrobatic fashion, Cam Healey came down with the ball in the end zone to tie the game at 20-20 going into the half. The second half was defensive battle. Evan Cibotti had some nice tackles and a couple well defended passes. Mason Kimball, Kasey Mahoney, Ethan Kemp, Max Mercure, Noah Sussman and Brady Martino played some great defensive line, limiting the Worcester team to only one score in the second half. The Bulldogs were unable to answer the score and fell short in this game 26-20. The parents and coaches of both sides were treated to one very well played, exciting battle!

PeeWee

The Bedford Junior Bulldogs Pee Wee team fell to 5-3 after dropping a 30-6 decision to Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts. Blackstone was strong and was led by one player who ran for over 220 yards and 4 touchdowns himself. The Bulldogs moved the ball effectively as Russ Erwin, Jesse Morin and Connor Mullin all had good days on the ground. The offensive line of Ryan Allard, Nate DeFazio, Bear Chandonnet, Finn O’ Neil and Brian Barbaro did a great job as the Bulldogs ran for over 150 yards. Again the turnover was the Bulldogs nemesis and it was too much to overcome against a good team.

The highlights of the day were Chris Shoals running for over 50 yards on the ground behind the spirited blocking of William Scholl, Tyler Moore and Matt Kyle and Owen Umansky leading the Bulldogs to a nice scoring drive behind the running of Connor Guibord, Ryan Wallat and Erwin. Umansky fired a great pass to Parker Henrichon for the touchdown to get the Bulldogs to within two scores but that was as close as they could get.

Ryan Ashburner, Michael Remick and Sean Greene both made big defensive stops late in the second quarter. The defensive line of Phil Tuscano, Caden Tamburello, Aidan Healy and Andrew Peicker were able to make some big stops to get the ball back for the Bulldogs in the 3rd. Hayden Austen and Eli Raby were stout upfront as well. JT DeLacey and Matt Ferrucci made several plays on the ball in the secondary as Aidan Morley and Aiden Landman were solid upfront.

The Bulldogs enter the playoffs next week as the two seed.

JHL JV

The JV Dogs got back in the win column after dominating all facets of the game. The boys got out to a lead early behind a 65 yard TD run by Alex "Babe Ruth" Bleakley, having called his first TD of the season the night before on All Hallows Eve! Were there ghosts and goblins paving the way? Nope, just the scary good blocking provided on the interior by Caleb Boulard, Evan Dunn, Ryan Charest, Ben Sylvain and Connor Winn. The line looked like they were carving up pumpkins as they continued to plow major holes for the outside lightning of Tyler Spires and the inside thunder of Kyle Lavigne. Aidan Wolfinger directed the offense under center and out of the spread with a couple of beautiful passes to Tegan Graham for big gainers as Graham turned it up field. Wolfinger racked up the yards on several designed QB keepers and capped 2 of the drives off with TD runs inside the DEADzone with conversions supplied by Lavigne and Spires. Not to be overshadowed was the spooktacular D, echoing Ghosts of the Graveyard of the 85 Bears. Double, Bubble, Toil and Trouble Zach Barnard, Patrick O’Mara, Damian Martineau and Hunter Ducharme made the Tewksbury line crumble! They cast their spells and toiled their potions causing Tewksbury lines illegal motions. Wreaking havoc in the backfield all day were Trevor Soden, Matthew Peicker, Kyle Lavigne and Alex Bleakley, lowering the BOOm and cleaning up the Tewksbury backfield with their witches broom. Tegan Graham came up big with a sack causing fumble and recovery on one series with Nick Merchant providing a sack of his own on the next defensive series. Tewksbury came out passing early, but the bump and run of Jackson Barlow, Gunner Grant, Tyler Spires and Mason Brown were suffocating, taking the air out of the offense. The Dogs finished their regular season with a 4-4 record and move on to play the JV squads of the upcoming Varsity playoff opponents.

JHL Varsity

The JHL Varsity squade beat Tewksbury Red 28-24.

CHEERLEADING

Tiny Mite

Last Sunday, the Tiny Mites were true movie stars as they made jaws drop at the State Championship. These girls showed the crowd that although they are tiny, they are strong. Their voices were loud, their stunts were perfect and their dance was absolutely adorable. The Tiny Mites cheered their loudest at the latest game in Amherst and rocked their halftime performance and had the crowd roaring.

JAGUARS

CHEERLEADING

Division 10 squad wins state title

All seven Bedford Jaguars cheerleading teams put together great performances on Oct. 31 All teams competed or exhibited at the New Hampshire Youth Spirit State Competition held at Southern New Hampshire University.

The Tiny Mites and Division 8 teams kicked off the morning with their routines. Both teams wowed the crowd their incredible performances.

The Division 10 team hit the mats next with a flawless routine that earned them the state title.

Division 12 and 14 finished second, missing first by only a few points. Both teams had their best performances of the season with some fierce competition.

All three of the Bedford Jaguars competing teams will be moving on to the Regional Competition, which will be held Nov. 22 at UMass Amherst in Amherst, Mass.

The Bedford Jaguars Dance team also exhibited at the event with a fun routine that had the spectators cheering them on. The Bedford Jaguar Adaptive team closed out the event with another inspirational performance, bringing the crowd to their feet.

Next stop for the teams will be Londonderry’s Harvest Invitational on Sunday at Londonderry High School.