THE CONWAY DAILY SUN, Tuesday, October 25, 2011— Page 15
Sachems’ Mahoney runs through Kennett Haine breaks course Laconia wins 42-12 ending the Eagles playoff hopes for 2011; one game left record in Wolfeboro BY LLOYD JONES THE CONWAY DAILY SUN
CONWAY — There will be no playoffs for the Kennett High football team this fall. The Eagles dropped their third straight contest Friday night, falling 42-12 at home in Gary Millen Stadium to Laconia to end their playoff aspirations until 2012. Billed as a must win game by both programs, it was the visiting Sachems who took control of the contest early and never let the Eagles build any real momentum. The win clinches a playoff berth for Laconia. Trinity, 8-0; Plymouth, 7-1; Laconia, 6-2; and Monadnock, 6-2 have secured the four playoffs spots and all that remains going into the final week of the regular season is to determine the match-ups for the opening round. Kennett, who dropped to 4-4 with the loss, lost all four of its games against the teams above it in the Division IV standings. The Eagles were only close against Monadnock, trailing the Huskies 13-10 at the half only to lose 26-10. Against Plymouth and Trinity, the boys from Conway trailed 35-0 and 45-0 at halftime, respectively, before ultimately losing 35-14 and 45-14. Laconia’s running game and the Sachems’ opportunistic defense proved too much on Friday. The Eagles had no answer for Laconia’s talented tailback David Mahoney, who racked up nearly 200 yards rushing on just 13 carries. He ran for three touchdowns and scored two more on defense as he had a night to remember. “David Mahoney put on a clinic,” Laconia Coach Craig Kozens said following the win. “In my 21 years of doing this, I’ve never seen a performance like this. People have been saying that (Kennett Nick) Massa and Mahoney were the top two junior backs. I think David showed what kind of back he is.”
Mahoney opened the scoring with a three-yard TD run and just moments later returned to the end zone when he scooped up a KHS fumble and darted 67 yards to pay-dirt. Trailing 14-0 after the first quarter, Kennett felt Mahoney’s wrath again when the speedy junior found a hole and bolted 57 yards for a TD. His brother Billy added the two-point conversion to put the Sachems in front 22-0, a lead they carried into the halftime break. Mahoney added his fourth and fifth touchdowns of the night and helped grow the lead to 35-0 in the third quarter when he scored on 25-yard interception return and later with a 20 yard TD run. Kennett found the end zone late, but the Sachems tacked on a sixth TD for insurance to seal their largest win in Conway in years. Although not playoff bound for the second consecutive season, the Eagles still have a trophy and bragging rights to play for this Friday night when they travel to Wolfeboro to play Kingswood in the annual Carroll County Championship game. Kickoff is 7 p.m., weather permitting. Coach Mike Holderman’s troops won last year’s county game 44-0 in Redstone. This could be the final meeting in the storied rivalry between the two schools as Kingswood has petitioned the NHIAA (New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association) to move down to Division V next season. The Knights have endured a rough 2011 season, going 0-8 while being outscored 375 to 107, including 134-0 over its past three games. Friday night will bring to an end the playing careers for seniors Austin Weber, Mike Lautenschlager, Jesse Wheeler, Shawn Beattie, Connor Gillette, Dustin Stewart, Tucker Paven, Darien Vaughan, Sam Getchell, Cody Richard, Chris Tucker, Matt Johnson, Dan Blake and Ryan Cottrell.
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BY LLOYD JONES THE CONWAY DAILY SUN
CONWAY — It’s big meet time for the Kennett High boys and girls cross country teams. The Eagles put the regular session in the rear view mirror on Thursday when they competed in the Kingswood Invitational in Wolfeboro on a muddy course. Senior Peter Haine capped his regular season running by winning the five school meet and set a new course record on the sloppy 5K course. “It’s great to see Peter come away with a new course record and a win in his last regular season race,” Bernie Livingston, Eagles’ head coach, said. “He literally slid through the finish line in 18:08 because it was so slippery. He ended up winning the race by 44 seconds.” The Kennett boys finished third overall in the meet, but just 13 points out of first. Plymouth took the top spot followed by Laconia, KHS, Kingswood and Sanborn. “We actually ran better than we had the week before at Plymouth where it poured,” Livingston said. “The meet went very well, but the course wasn’t in very good shape because of all the rain earlier in the week. It was just absolute mud in some spots. I’m honestly surprised that all the kids, not just from Kennett, ran so well.” Haine was followed by Ryan Kenny, sixth, 19:32; David Mays, 11th, 20:11; Brian Behr, 20th, 20:43; Liam Martin, 22nd, 21:08; Ben Zimmer, 23rd, 21:17; Cody Lahey, 26th, 20:40; Andrew Casella, 27th, 20:40.4; Tucker Furnbach, 31st, 21:52; Alex Brown, 47th, 24:22; Josh Hill, 49th, 24:48; Jon Brady, 24:51; Matt Wales, 51st, 24:51; Kyle Williams, 52nd, 24:54; Tim Allen, 54th, 24:58; Sean Raciot-Psaledakes, see KENNETT page 16