Concord rolls over Pinkerton to win D1 football championship

CONCORD – It took a little more than seven minutes for the Concord High School football team to get control of Saturday’s Division I championship game against Pinkerton Academy.

Then, it took the Crimson Tide less than six more minutes to break the Astros.

No. 1 Concord scored on five straight possessions during a 12-minute span that stretched over the second and third quarters on the way to a 42-14 victory over No. 3 Pinkerton at Memorial Field. The win gave the Tide (12-0) their first championship since 2000 and the first undefeated season in program history.

“This feels unbelievable,” Concord coach Eric Brown said. “Not only to win a championship, but to be the first undefeated team in Concord High history is unbelievable.”

Robert Law threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns on 8 of 12 passing, connecting with Seimou Smith, Marc Gaudet and Nicholas Comeau for touchdowns. Smith finished with four catches for 107 yards, while Walters Ndi (67 rushing yards, two touchdowns) and Leo Sudieh (59, one) led the way on the ground.

Concord was just as good defensively, forcing three turnovers and holding the Astros (9-3) to 198 yards of offense. Manny Latimore had 97 yards rushing and a touchdown, which came with 1:04 left in the game while T.J. Urbanik added 69 yards and a score on the ground.

The Tide scored off all three turnovers, and added touchdowns off a blocked punt and a successful onside kick.

“When you turn the ball over, you get disillusioned,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “And the combination of turning the ball over and then getting a quick strike against you, you know … you can’t afford it in the championship game.”

The game was nothing like when the teams met in the regular season, when Concord rallied late to force overtime and won 21-14.

“We made the mistake the first time of focusing too heavily on (Latimore),” Brown said. “We just had a solid game plan of reading our keys and being true to those reads no matter who had the ball because they have more weapons than just Manny.

“I expected our offense to execute a little better than last time. Scoring 42, no I didn’t think that, but I thought we’d do better than we did the first time we played.”

Concord looked like a team in trouble on its first series, as Law was almost picked off on the first play and the Tide fumbled on the next two. On fourth down, Comeau punted into the wind and his kick traveled just three yards, setting Pinkerton up with great field position.

But after a 15-yard run by Latimore, Matt Madden lost the first of two fumbles and Concord took over at its own 6-yard line. The Tide turned the opportunity into a seven-play, 94-yard drive that ended on Sudieh’s 27-yard touchdown run. Law’s pass attempt failed, but it was still 6-0 Concord with 5:13 let in the opening quarter.

Pinkerton answered the drive with one of its own, going 64 yards in 10 plays as Urbanik scored from 5 yards out and the extra point made it 7-6 with 1:45 left in the quarter.

Concord was still down by one when Madden’s second lost fumble gave the Tide the ball at the Astros’ 23 with 7:20 to go in the opening half. Two plays later, Ndi scored on a 5-yard run but the run failed to make it a 12-7 lead for Concord.

“Certainly not the way we wanted to start, but we overcame,” Brown said. “Our defense really responded. I don’t know if it was a giveaway or a takeaway, but either way, it was a turnover. We’ve been working hard at that stuff all year and our defense stepped up and turned things around.”

The Astros were forced to punt on their next possession and the kick traveled just 20 yards, giving Concord the ball at the Pinkerton 30. It took the Tide three plays to score, as Ndi picked up his second TD from 13 yards out.

Another three-and-out led to another Astros’ punt, and this one was partially blocked, giving the Tide a first down at the 27-yard line of Pinkerton. On the first play, Law hit Smith with a pass right at the goal line and the senior wideout stretched into the end zone for a 28-7 lead with 58 seconds left in the half.

“That catch was big because I missed it the first time and the second time, I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Smith said. “There was too much at stake. There’s a chance that you might not get again.”

The outburst was something that Brown was used to seeing.

“That’s our offense,” he said. “We’re capable of that. We didn’t rely on one guy and we spread the wealth and things happened. Robbie did a nice job distributing the ball.”

The Tide opened the second half with an onside kick that was executed perfectly by Ndi. The senior hit Pinkerton’s Jason Hansen as the ball arrived and Concord’s William Scharlotte recovered at the Astros’ 45.

“Before we went in, we talked about the wind and the field position and what we were doing with our kick coverage,” Brown said. “We thought it was a good opportunity to take a shot.”

A hold and an intentional grounding call left the Tide facing a third-and-33, but Ndi took a short pass from Law 27 yards to the Pinkerton 21, and on fourth down, Law found Gaudet alone to his left near the goal line. Sudieh ran in the conversion and Concord led 36-7 with 8:28 to go in the third.

“I knew we were going to get it,” Gaudet said of the onside kick. “We were saying we had to end their hope, and how we were going to do that was get the ball back and score. Robbie rolled to the right and the corner went away, so I was just sitting there, waiting. Luckily he turned back my way.”

With Pinkerton forced to throw, Concord’s Walter Szulc picked off a pass by Jack Hanaway at midfield and returned it to the Astros’ 29. Three plays later, Law his Comeau to make it 42-7 and start the running clock with 6:28 still to go in the third.

“It was that quick,” O’Reilly said. “Having the clock run on us in the second half, I don’t think that’s happened before. It certainly hasn’t happened in a playoff or championship game. That’s a credit to them. They did whatever they wanted to.”