Bedford football beats Concord in OT, clinches spot in postseason

BEDFORD – The Bedford High School football team will be playing in November.

The Bulldogs made sure of that Friday with a 24-16 win over Concord in overtime that not only puts them in the Division I North Conference title game, but assures that Bedford will be hosting that game on Nov. 8.

Who the Bulldogs (7-0) will be playing is still up in the air, as Concord’s loss, combined with a Manchester Memorial win over Spaulding, puts the two tied at 5-2 in the conference. Memorial owns the tiebreaker, thanks to its head-to-head win over Concord.

But that was the least of concerns for Bedford coach Kurt Hines following the victory. What was on his mind was the team’s ability to have the next guy in line on the depth chart step up.

“I’m so proud of them,” he said of his players. “I told the guys this week, having 130 kids in the program is great, as long as you can count on them to step up.”

Bedford was down two starters due to concussions, and backup quarterback Tyler Ciabotti was out with an ankle injury. Starting cornerback Tucker Lavine didn’t play due to illness, and his backup, Eric Sabaen, went down early with a broken finger. That left third-stringer corner, Jonathan Hoaglund to make one of the biggest plays of the game.

After Mike Vailas scored on a 5-yard run – one of the quarterback’s three rushing touchdowns – and added the two-point conversion to put Bedford up eight in overtime, Concord faced a fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line. Quarterback Robert Law rolled to his right and threw a pass to Kevin Condict, who had made a spectacular catch on a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime, but Hoaglund knocked the ball away to end the game.

“We played as well as we could have hoped for,” Concord coach Eric Brown said. “We’ll take a lot of positives away from this, but right now, I’m really proud of the kids.”

One of those positives is how the Crimson Tide was able to slow down Bedford’s offense in the first half. The Bulldogs 46 yards in the opening half and picked up just three first downs, two on the team’s final drive that ended in a 32-yard field goal by Cooper Anibal with 4.2 seconds to go before halftime.

Before that, Concord had dominated time of possession as the Tide got on the board first on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Law to Jayln Stone. Concord got the two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead with 9:59 left in the opening quarter.

“I think what hurt us is that we had too many situations where we had third-and-short and we didn’t convert,” Hines said. “Defensively, they were in third-and-long, about 15 or 18 yards, or at least it seemed, and we didn’t contain the quarterback or they beat us on a screen. We needed to be a little more disciplined and we need to be faster to the ball. We were a little slow (in the first half).”

Bedford took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched down the field, getting in the end zone on a 20-yard scamper by Vailas, who danced his way out of two tackles on the play. After completing just 2 of 7 passes in the first half, Vailas finished 12 of 19 for 81 yards and rushed for 86 yards on 21 carries with the three scores.

Concord’s defense kept it in the game early in the fourth quarter, stopping Bedford on a fourth-and-goal from the Tide’s 10-yard line. But the offense was unable to do much and gave the ball back to Bedford in decent field position. The Bulldogs capitalized again, this time on a 2-yard touchdown run by Vailas with 3:53 to play.

But on the extra point, Concord’s William Scharlotte was able to block the kick, keeping the Tide within eight points.

“Huge,” Brown said. “If we don’t get that, we don’t even have a shot at overtime.”

The Bulldogs looked to have the game wrapped up in regulation, but on fourth-and-7 at the Concord 45, Law escaped pressure from one defender and found Condict behind the secondary as he was leveled by another defender for a 24-yard gain. Four plays later, Law ran in from 5 yards out and Condict made a juggling catch at the goal line on the conversion to tie the game at 16 with 1:37 to play.

“He’s just a heady kid,” Brown said. “We knew they were coming with pressure and they did a great job taking away some things. It was supposed to be a waggle and they just took it away. Robbie is supposed to quick turn, and read the play side guy and he just came so hard. It was a head’s up play on his part.”

It was just one of several big plays made by Law, who was sacked three times, but managed to avoid other negative plays with his athleticism.

“Robbie Law can move,” Hines said. “He moved better (Friday) than I had seen all year.”

Law finished the game 11 of 18 for 110 yards with a touchdown and an interception, and also had 46 yards rushing and a touchdown on 16 carries.