Defense leads Campbell football past Newport in D3 title game

DURHAM – The schedule says the Campbell High School football team opened its season with the same three opponents it finished with, but the results were a whole lot different.

The Cougars opened the year going 1-2 against Somersworth, Bow and Newport, a one-point win over the later the only thing keeping them from a winless start. But instead of panic, coach Greg Gush and his players stayed the course, knowing it was going to take time for the Cougars to find their groove.

And Campbell did, beating Somersworth and Bow, respectively, to reach the Division III championship game, and in Saturday’s finale against Newport, the Cougars’ defense set the tone from the start in a 20-6 victory at the University of New Hampshire’s Cowell Stadium.

No. 2 Campbell (9-2) forced six turnovers, including two interceptions on Newport’s first two drives, and held the No. 1 Tigers (9-2) to 160 total yards of offense. It was also the sixth time in its eight-game win streak that Campbell held the opposition to a touchdown or less.

“Our defense played really well against them,” Gush said. “Our defense has played well all year. We figured they’d get one and that’s the one we gave them. We buckled down the rest of the way.”

Newport’s Noah Wade ran for 140 yards and a 43-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but no one else for the Tigers had more than 29.

Conor Gannon scored two touchdowns for Campbell, including a 7-yard interception return in the first quarter that made it 7-0 after the Cougars’ offense had stalled inside the Newport 10-yard line. Kevin Moreau also had a touchdown run and added 119 total yards, including 52 yards rushing, while quarterback Kyle Manning was 12 of 22 for 108 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

“This is great,” Moreau said. “It’s what we’ve been preparing for all season and there’s nothing better.”

Justin DiBenedetto intercepted Newport quarterback Tom Hogan to end the Tigers’ first drive near midfield, and the Cougars marched 57 yards in nine plays to face a fourth-and-1 at the Newport 3-yard line. But a false start pushed Campbell back and Manning’s pass to Andrew Smarse came up well short of a first down.

Newport was able to get away from its own goal line thanks to an 11-yard completion from Hogan to Zach Whalen, but on second-and-12 from the 19, the snap went over Hogan’s head. He scooped the ball up near his own end zone, turned and fired a pass right to Gannon that the Campbell junior was able to walk in for a touchdown.

The Tigers mishandled the ensuing kickoff and Campbell’s Tyler Walton recovered it at the Newport 33-yard line. Six plays later, Moreau rumbled his way into the end zone to give the Cougars a 13-0 lead with 21 seconds left in the first quarter.

“Huge momentum shifts early in the game really gets the confidence boosting on our sideline,” Manning said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”

Wade answered for the Tigers on the next drive, as he broke a couple of tackles and went 43 yards for the score, but Newport went for two and the pass was incomplete, making it 13-6 Campbell early in the second quarter.

The Cougars struggled on offense in the second quarter, but the defense did its job, holding Newport without a first down until the fourth quarter.

Campbell finally put a drive together on its second possession of the third quarter with an 11-play, 67-yard drive that took up 5:03 and ended with Manning’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Gannon on fourth-and-goal from the 1.

“That’s what we talked about at halftime,” Gush said of the long touchdown drive. “We breathed a little bit of life into them, so let’s drive down and get a touchdown. That was a huge drive for us to get points.”

Campbell looked like it was going to put the game away early in the fourth, when its punt team downed the ball at Newport’s 1-yard line and the Tigers fumbled the ball away at their own 8 two plays later. But on third-and-goal from the 7, Manning was picked off by Stephan Nix.

But after the defense held again, the Cougars ate up almost six minutes with an 11-play drive, and from there, it was only a matter of time before the celebrating could begin.

“We said what do you want to be remembered by?” Gush said of what the coaches talked about to the players after the semifinal win last week. “Bow is a very good team and do you want to be remembered as the team that beat Bow? Or do you want to be remembered as the first Campbell team to get a title?

“It’s up to you guys. People will talk about that Bow game for a long time, but when you’re 35 years old and you walk into the gym, you get to look up and say that’s the banner they hoisted for us. They took that to heart and got it done.”