Bedford football rides defense to D1 title win over Exeter

DURHAM – Every school day, Derek Stank stands in the Bedford High School gymnasium and looks up at a lot of championship banners, but none of them are for the football team.

Until now.

The Bulldogs found the end zone on their first drive of the second half and the defense kept Exeter off the scoreboard to win 7-0 Saturday in the Division I football championship game at the University of New Hampshire’s Wildcat Stadium. The title is the first in program history for Bedford, which had lost in three previous championship games.

Connor Robert connected with Noah Chaberek for a 23-yard touchdown pass to finish off the opening drive of the third quarter and Bedford (12-0) handed the Blue Hawks (10-2) their first shutout loss since 2009.

“I’ve been standing in that gymnasium as a wellness teacher for 10 years, and I see championship banners all over the place, but not one of them has the word football on it,” Stank said. “We finally get to hang that thing and I’m very proud to be involved in this program.

“I figured it was going to be a pretty low-scoring game. I thought they’d be able to get into that end zone and eventually we’d answer. The defense did what it’s done all year. I think they responded when we needed them to.”

Bedford’s defense held Exeter to 149 yards, including just 44 in the second half, with most of that coming on the first drive of the third quarter for the Blue Hawks, after the Bulldogs took the lead.

Exeter went on a 13-play, 38-yard drive and converted three of four third downs, but on fourth-and-4 from the Bedford 26, quarterback Kyle Ball was picked off by Shahrukh Hussain to end the threat. Exeter also got into Bedford territory twice in the first half, but each time, turned the ball over on downs.

“We have a bend-don’t-break mentality,” Bedford linebacker Kyle Lagerquist said. “We knew they were going to get yards and they’re a really good football team. Once they got toward the goal line, we had to tighten up.”

Lagerquist helped lead the defense with two sacks and an interception on Exeter’s final drive, while Owen Brown had two of his team-high seven tackles for loss.

Nick Leahy led the offense, carrying the ball 19 times for 127 yards, 113 of which came after halftime, while Robert had 54 yards on the ground and was 8 of 21 for 65 yards to go with a touchdown and two interceptions.

“These guys are a tough team,” Leahy said. “They’re a big, physical machine, that’s how they run their offense and how they run their defense. We were able to just execute.”

Bedford wasn’t able to do that for much of the first half, as the Bulldogs had just 101 yards and had the ball for 8:07 in the half. The Blue Hawks put a drive together on their second possession, going on a 13-play drive to get to the Bedford 22.

But on fourth-and-3, Ball kept around the right end and slipped short of the first down.

Midway through the second quarter, Exeter took over near midfield and got down to the Bedford 28, but again, the Blue Hawks couldn’t convert on fourth down.

“We win because of our defense,” Leahy said. “It’s unreal and they’ve pulled out games for us all year long, and they did it again (Saturday) with an amazing game.”

Bedford finally got the offense going late in the second quarter, driving down to the Exeter 17-yard line, but Robert was picked off by Cam Flanagan to end the threat.

The Bulldogs got another chance to open the second half, going on a nine-play, 80-yard drive, with Leahy rushing for 57 yards on the drive. Bedford’s offense looked like it might stall, facing a third-and-9 at the Exeter 23, but Robert found Chaberek wide open down the far sideline.

“We were trying to get to the outside,” Leahy said. “We knew they had some big players and we had good speed. Just based on how they were lining up, we’ve got plays that would attack them, and that’s what we did and we were able to execute.”

Exeter responded by driving into Bedford territory, but that fourth down pass from Ball (1 of 7, nine yards, two interceptions, 41 yards rushing) was underthrown and Hussain intercepted it near the Bulldogs’ goal line.

“I think coming out of the locker room, we had some confidence,” Stank said of the second half. “We could do well against this team, we just needed to make sure we didn’t hurt ourselves.

“You go to the championship game against a team like Exeter, and you can try not to fear them, but with this program and this history, there’s always going to be fear. To go out in the second half, we knew we could play with them, it made our boys believe even more.”