ConVal dominates in win

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Last week, the ConVal football team was 47 seconds away from its first shutout of the season.

It was so close that the Cougars used it as motivation And on Thursday, ConVal did not have to wait any longer to hold an opponent scoreless. Despite having the game moved up one-day with the forecast for heavy rain on Friday, the defense showed it was ready for the challenge of posting a shutout in a 47-0 dismantling of Merrimack Valley to improve to 3-5 overall.

“We probably should have put it up last week, but it’s about time we did it,” said senior lineman Tom Hughes of the shutout. “It feels great. We all played a great game and worked as a team.”

The trek toward Thursday’s dominating performance actually began on Oct. 5. With the team trailing 28-6 at the half to Alvirne, first year coach Ryan McCartney challenged the defense to hold the Broncos scoreless in the second half and the offense to put some points on the board. And the team responded by holding Alvirne to zero second half points and scoring 15, but fell short in a seven-point loss.

The strong effort on both sides of the ball continued into last Saturday’s match-up with Hollis/Brookline, as ConVal led 17-0 at the half and 24-0 before the Cavaliers punched one in the final minute with the game already decided.

And that trend continued into the program’s final Division III home game of the season on Thursday.

“All the wins we get are big because we’re trying to build a program,” said McCartney. “They went 1-8 and 1-8 the last two years and we’re 3-5. If we went 5-5 after starting 1-5 that would be a great accomplishment.”

Right now it comes down to the fact that ConVal is playing four quarters of football. Early in the season that was far from the case. The Cougars would play well at times, but also committed a number of costly penalties and turnovers that took them out of some close games.

“This is a great second week in a row of four full quarters for us,” said McCartney.

That is no longer the case. The number of turnovers has continued to drop since committing four in a loss to Souhegan on Sept. 29. In each of the previous two weeks, ConVal fumbled away its opening possession. On Thursday, the Cougars had their first turnover-free game of the year. And on the other side of the ball, the Cougars secured four Merrimack Valley mistakes, all in the second half, and turned them into 20 points.

“We’re doing a really good job of causing turnovers. We’ve really stepped it up on defense and offensively, we’re just focused on doing our best to do whatever it takes to not turn it over,” senior Jeremy Doubleday said.

ConVal led 27-0 at the half and did not allow the Pride’s offense to cross midfield.

“We talked about it at halftime,” said McCartney. “It’s been a long time since we’ve shut out a team.”

Senior Chris Queen scored the first of his four touchdowns on a nine-yard run with 6:10 remaining in the first quarter after ConVal drove the opening kickoff right through the Merrimack Valley defense.

Following a three-and-out for the Pride, Queen ran one in from seven yards out just before the end of the first quarter to give ConVal a 13-0 edge. The scoring would continue on the Cougars’s next possession, but this time it was Doubleday getting the call and scoring on a 13-yard run at the 5:15 mark of the second. Queen’s seven yard scamper with 48.7 seconds left in the half put the advantage at 27. ConVal scored on all four of its first half possessions. For the game, Doubleday led the Cougars with 195 yards, while Queen gave ConVal two 100-plus yard rushers with 140 and four scores.

“Right now we’re running on all cylinders and I have so much confidence in that O-Line that I know we can get the job done on the ground,” said McCartney. “We don’t care what down and distance it is, we are still going to run the ball.”

And in the second half is when the defense began turning up the heat. Senior Ben Edes picked off the second play of the third quarter and returned it to the two-yard line. Queen would add his fourth rushing score of the day with just 53 seconds gone by.

The Pride would threaten ConVal’s pursuit of a shutout on their next drive. With a fourth and goal play from the 20, ConVal was called for pass interference in the end zone, giving Merrimack Valley a fresh set of downs at the 10. But on the next fourth and goal play of the drive, senior Max Wildes came away with an interception at the one.

“We were definitely focused. We really wanted this shutout,” said Doubleday.

Senior Jesse Mitchell would add two rushing touchdowns following ConVal fumble recoveries.

ConVal will host Division V Sanborn on Friday night at 7 p.m.