By Ray Curren
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT — It was probably clear before it, but any doubts that the wind was going to be a major factor Saturday afternoon at Maryn Field were put to rest when Newport’s Eric Wilkinson hammered the opening kickoff, only to see it flutter and nearly stop before dropping a few dozen yards from where he kicked it.
After a slow start, the Tigers football team was not phased, however. They didn’t complete a pass, but didn’t need to, controlling the line of scrimmage for most of the contest in a 24-12 win over Epping-Newmarket in a battle of NHIAA Division IV unbeatens.
The win leaves Newport (5-0) — which hadn’t played in three weeks — as the lone unbeaten in Division IV, and barring a major upset in its final two games against Mascoma and Newfound, the defending champion Tigers will be the top seed in the playoffs.
The layoff and wind both may have played a part in the sluggish start for Newport, who had an 8-yard punt after its first possession. But slowly, the Tiger line began to assert itself and on the third play of the second quarter, Devyn Haino broke free for a 55-yard touchdown run to break the scoreless deadlock. Newport’s next drive belonged to junior Karter Pollari, who had the last four carries with a 4-yard touchdown run to finish it. Newport made both conversions and had a 16-0 lead at halftime.
“Our offense is usually to pound the football,” said Newport coach John Proper. “I was nervous coming in because we hadn’t played in three weeks. We were a little rusty and it showed in the first quarter: we made mistakes and we had some penalties. Second quarter, we started moving the ball, had a good defensive stand, we looked more like how we want to look.”
Heino scored from 34 yards out on the first possession of the second half, and when quarterback Kyle Ashley ran in the conversion, the Tigers led 24-0 with 8:28 left in the third quarter and appeared headed to a comfortable win.
Epping (4-1) quarterback Colby Bost had other ideas, however, hitting James Dross for a 65-yard touchdown pass three plays later. Bost would finish with 229 yards passing (8-of-15), a stat made even more remarkable considering he did not complete a pass until there were four minutes left in the first half. Two more completions preceded a Cam Nice 9-yard touchdown run and the Blue Devils were within 24-12 with 10:12 still left.
But Newport was able to control the ball the rest of the way and stepped up the pressure on Bost to eventually seal the victory, despite a couple of nervous moments and penalties.
The Tigers finished with 349 yards of offense, all on the ground, largely split between Heino (17-148), Pollari (14-107), and Tyler Gobin (17-101), who all cracked the 100-yard barrier, but the real heroes of the day may have been the Tigers’ offensive line, who pushed Epping back consistently after the first drive.
“I love running people over, but I give it up to our line mostly. They made holes and gave me one guy to beat and that’s the fun part,” Heino said.
If Newport wins out, the game between Epping-Newmarket and Somersworth (both teams Newport has already beaten) on Oct. 29 will likely decide the second and third seeds for the Division IV playoffs.
“It was a good gut check for us,” Proper said. “We had to face a little adversity. We’re just fortunate we had a big enough lead, but I wanted to see how they would react. We have some things to clean up, but we hope to see them (Epping-Newmarket) or Somersworth in the finals again. That’s the plan.”
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