By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
LACONIA — It took Laconia only 2 minutes and 2 seconds to march 87 yards for its first touchdown of the night and the Sachems never stopped scoring as they coasted past 0-8 Newport, 65-24. Friday night.
Laconia, now 5-3 and Division III playoff-bound, closes out its regular season with a noontime kickoff Saturday at Inter-Lakes-Moultonborough and should end its nine-game schedule at 6-3.
Newport will have home-field advantage when it hosts 1-7 Epping-Newmarket starting at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. A victory for the Tigers would end their season on a positive note and in a tie with Epping-Newmarket for last place in the D-III standings, both with 1-8 records.
A couple of scoring records for the New Hampshire football season were also set Friday night.
Laconia’s output of 65 points was No. 1 among all New Hampshire high school football teams this season and the 89-point total was also tops for two teams in a game.
Only one game in Vermont topped both of those totals. U-32 whipped North Country earlier in the season, 66-36. The 66-point total was one point more than Laconia tallied against Newport and the two-team total was also the most at 102.
One team figure that lifted Laconia to its victory came in the area of total yards. The Sachems notched 590 yards in the rushing and passing departments with 558 of them coming on the ground to 105 for Newport.
Newport had a solid advantage in the passing department, completing 3 of 7 pass attempts for 151 yards while Laconia was 1 for 1 for 32 yards.
Laconia scored in double figures in each of the four periods. Newport really came to life in the third period when it tallied all 24 of its points.
From the line of scrimmage, Laconia dominated the action, running 55 plays to 23 for the Tigers.
Individually. Joey Ackerman caught 3 of 6 passes from JT Blaine for all 151 yards through the air to go with 15 running yards for a game total of 166 yards. Josh Sharron picked up 61 yards rushing followed by Blaine at 24.
On defense, Ackerman, Sharron and Marius Edwards all had six tackles.
Laconia built a 31-0 halftime lead on the strength of two TD’s in the opening quarter, both by senior Jakob Steele from 85 yards and 7 yards. He scored his third touchdown of the contest in the second period from the 3-yard line
Senior Kelby Brooker tallied Laconia’s fourth score in the second period on a 3-yard run. A field goal with 4.5 seconds remaining in the second period by senior Ryan Palva increased the Sachem’s margin to 31-0.
A pass-run play from Blaine to Ackerman covering 57 yards got Newport on the board with 10:15 left in the third period. Newport added touchdowns by Josh Sharron from 56 yards out, an 80-yard runback of a Laconia kickoff by Ackerman and a Laconia fumble recovered by Chase Hamilton in the end zone.
Laconia added 20 more points in the third period along with 14 in the fourth period.
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