By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
CONTOOCOOK — Newport continued to struggle Saturday, dropping a one-sided 47-0 decision to 3-1 Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton.
And it won’t get any easier Saturday night when the Tigers travel to Monadnock for a 6:30 kickoff against the 4-0 Huskies. Monadnock is coming off an 18-13 victory over previously unbeaten Trinity.
However, after Saturday there is light at the end of the tunnel for Newport with home games against Somersworth, 0-4; Kearsarge, 0-4, and Epping-Newmarket, 1-3, and an away game at Laconia, 2-2.
“It was a tough game,” Newport Coach Dennis Borcuk said as he looked back on Saturday’s contest. “We got talking about the difference between winning and losing and the margin is very small.”
Borcuk said Newport came pretty close to breaking plays for touchdowns on at least three different occasions. “Players were happy to see it, progress is being made and the attitudes are still upbeat.”
Newport team members got to review the game frame by frame on film. “It is kind of the same as going to school,” Borcuk revealed. “Just one cut while running can make a difference.”
On the positive side, Newport did have good average field position on Hillsboro kickoffs, getting the ball out to the 40-yard line.
A recap of game statistics supported the effort by Hillsboro-Deering/Hopkinton. The Redhawks piled up 15 first downs to only 2 for Newport and held the Tigers to 28 total yards of rushing and passing.
The Redhawks defense was also at the top of its game, sacking Newport quarterback Austin Malool 5 times.
Newport had two explosive plays of 12 and 38 yards, a successful pass from Malool to Joey Ackerman.
On the opening series of plays, Hillsboro picked up three straight first downs on three plays and scored a touchdown on its fifth play from scrimmage on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 8:47 left in the opening period.
On its first series of plays, Newport was forced to punt on fourth down and two plays later hard-running Colby Quiet went up the middle for a 38-yard touchdown with 6:25 left in the period. He ended the game with 4 touchdowns.
By halftime the Redhawks had built up a 33-0 lead.
The third touchdown for Hillsboro came on a pass to junior Jack Horne who was all alone inside the 10-yard line. Quiet struck again with 4:17 left in the second period on a 47-yard run down the sideline pushing the score to 25-0 following a two-point conversion.
A pass from quarterback Caleb Yianakopolos to Joe Sawitsky covering 12 yards upped the score to 33-0 with 11 seconds remaining in the half.
Before the game ended, Quiet scored two more touchdowns from close range of 1 and 2 yards.
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