High school football, Div. I playoffs: Londonderry in control from the start
Nov. 4—LONDONDERRY — There was no upset at Londonderry High School on Saturday. As it turned out, there wasn't even the threat of one.
Fourth-seeded Londonderry was in control from start to finish and earned a 46-0 victory over 13th-seeded Windham in the first round of the Division I playoffs.
The Lancers led 13-0 after one quarter, 27-0 at halftime and 39-0 entering the fourth.
"We imposed our will and asserted ourselves very early on," Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. "There's a knock on us out there that teams might be able to tire us out and I challenged the guys with that so they brought the energy for four quarters. We've also let teams back in games. We didn't do that today. That was the message to the team at the beginning of the week. We're going to get up and we're not going to let them back in it."
Senior running back Jake Schena scored twice for the Lancers (9-1). After quarterback Alex Villa opened the scoring on a 3-yard run, Schena had a 10-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and helped make it 20-0 with a 45-yard run with 10:25 to play in the second.
Sam Ogden's 45-yard touchdown run plus Blake Thompson's point-after kick handed the Lancers a 27-0 halftime lead.
Londonderry's other touchdowns came on an 11-yard pass from Ogden to Mason Paquette, Jaydon Navarro's 2-yard run and Caiden Malek's 26-yard run.
"It was really tough to get things going," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "You tip your cap. You get back in the weight room and you keep fighting.
"Honestly, the first thing you have to do is prepare year-round (to compete with Londonderry). As far as getting ready for an actual game with them (the key) is being ready to deal with adversity. ... They're not going to give you a lot. The openings that you have are really small and you have to take advantage of them."
Windham (4-6) put up a better fight in a 21-14 loss to Londonderry during the regular season. The Lancers limited Windham running back Tiger An to 21 yards on eight carries in the rematch after he gained 74 yards on 19 carries in the first meeting.
"You think a game plan is solid and then looking back at it I was like, 'No, I can come up with a better game plan than that,'" Lauzon said. "And I thought we did that today. It was a better game plan and we executed a little bit better.
"I just thought we would be the better, bigger, stronger team today. That was my hope. I was a little nervous that it wasn't going to work and we were going to have to go to Plan B. It worked. That's what we were able to do."
Londonderry will play host to fifth-seeded Exeter in the Division I quarterfinals. The Lancers beat the Blue Hawks 35-0 in Londonderry during the regular season.
"Great teams finish and great teams play for four quarters with intensity," Lauzon said. "That's what we did today."
