St. Thomas survives battle with Windham for D2 football title (video)

DURHAM – It was not the way Eric Cumba envisioned his St. Thomas High School football team winning a championship.

But when Sunday’s Division II title game ended, the Saints head coach didn’t really care.

Forget the stats and the expectations, all that mattered was what the scoreboard said, and when time ran out, it showed that St. Thomas defeated Windham 10-6 in the final at Cowell Stadium at the University of New Hampshire.

While the St. Thomas offense struggled to move the ball against the Jaguars, getting shut out on the day, the special teams provided all the scoring and the defense did just enough to win the game.

“When we had to make the play on the money downs, we did,” Cumba said. “We came in averaging nine points allowed and we gave up six. We held them below our average, but our offense laid an egg. We’re champs, so it doesn’t really matter.

“Zero points on offense, you usually think you’re getting shut out. They had a great plan and executed it well. We made the plays when we needed to. Fortunately, our special teams and our defense came to play.”

The lone touchdown for the Saints came from the special teams on Windham’s first drive. With the Jaguars lining up to punt on fourth down, the snap to Victor Pizzotti sailed over his head, and when the junior recovered the ball, he tried to kick it.

Instead, Matt Elliot blocked the kick and Zach Knight recovered it at the 16 and returned it for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 4:25 left in the first quarter.

“We had one snap over our head earlier in the season and we told (Pizzotti), if he could get it off, it’s more likely you’ll get a roughing the kicker,” Windham coach Bill Raycraft said. “You give them the ball that far in, there’s a good chance they score anyways.”

Maybe against other teams, but not Sunday against Windham.

St. Thomas (11-0) gained just 168 yards on the day, but 50 of those game on the Saints’ final drive, as they marched to the Windham 14-yard line in 14 plays, using up  6:38 of the fourth quarter. A 32-yard field goal by Matt Baker meant the Jaguars (9-2) would have to find the end zone in the game’s final 1:19.

Windham was able to get to the St. Thomas 28, but Ben Emrick’s throw toward the end zone was intercepted by Nate Grunbeck with nine seconds left to wrap up the win for the Saints.

“We woke up this morning, felt like we were going to win,” Raycraft said. “Everybody kept talking about their high-power offense and we knew we had a good plan defensively. I thought we’d put at least one more touchdown on, so I thought it’d be low-scoring. We cost ourselves on some turnovers and penalties and those things happen. When you’re going against a good team, you’ve got to execute on every play and I think we left a few plays out there.”

The Jaguars outgained the Saints, getting 233 yards from the offense, including 99 rushing and a touchdown from Pizzotti. But three turnovers hurt Windham, if only because it kept them from gaining momentum.

St. Thomas was unable to do anything with the miscues, as quarterback Stephen Hedberg was 5 for 15 for 49 yards passing and Sam Andolina was the team’s leading rusher with 64 yards.

After Hedberg was picked off by Windham’s Michael Sundman late in the third quarter, the Jaguars were finally able to finish a drive. Windham went 56 yards in eight plays, scoring on Pizzotti’s 9-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

But the Jaguars opted to go for two, and Emrick’s pass was intercepted at the goal line by St. Thomas’ Edwin Estevez to keep a 7-6 lead for the Saints with 11:57 to play.

“We decided that early on,” Raycraft said of going for two. “Looking at them, we knew we were wearing them down. We thought we could punch it in. We knew they’d stack it a little bit, so we thought we’d be able to sneak out and get Ben to throw. It was there.”

The Saints fumbled three times on their next possession, recovering the first two, but Grunbeck’s fumble after a 12-yard catch-and-run gave Windham the ball at the Saints’ 39-yard line. But the St. Thomas defense held and Emrick’s pass to Shane LaFond on fourth down was broken up.

St. Thomas responded by giving the ball Andolina, as he carried on 10 of the 14 plays to set up Baker’s field goal.

“It was a man’s drive,” Cumba said. “We showed some backbone and some toughness. It’s one thing people may have questioned about us for years, is can we be physical enough to win a game if we have to. That drive was the epitome of physical football. It looks different than the way most teams do it, but the result in the end was what we wanted.”

That result was an undefeated championship for the Saints. How they got there doesn’t matter now.