John Stark football beats Plymouth on late interception return

WEARE – Rod McQuarrie was expecting the John Stark High School football team to make a stop.

He didn’t think it was going to take care of scoring for the Generals, too.

With a little more than a minute to play in a tie game Saturday against Plymouth, McQuarrie was looking for his defense to force a punt and then let the offense drive the field for a quick touchdown.

Instead, the Generals tipped a pass by Plymouth’s Brandon Roy at the line of scrimmage and David Hewey came up with the interception. As soon as the ball change hands, John Stark’s defenders turned into blockers and led the way for Hewey, who returned the pick 45 yards for the game-winning touchdown, as the Generals beat the Bobcats 42-35 in a matchup of undefeated teams in the Division II North Conference.

“David is one of those type of players who will do what you’ve asked him to,” McQuarrie said. “When we have him on defense, he’s around the ball quite a bit. I’m proud of our group. We stuck with it in a tough game. That is a game that makes you battle tested and we needed that.”

Plymouth (6-1) got out to a 14-0 lead thanks to a dominant run game in the first half, and the Bobcats led 21-7 before John Stark (7-0) scored two touchdowns in 14 seconds – one on the final play before halftime and another on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter.

The Generals led 28-21 and 35-28, but couldn’t hold the lead with under five minutes to play. The Bobcats had a final shot at tying the game, but Roy’s fourth-down pass from the John Stark 30-yard line with five seconds left fell incomplete.

“It was back and forth,” Plymouth coach Chris Sanborn said. “That last play of the game, we had a guy wide open underneath, but the quarterback saw something deep. He threw the ball pretty well. Our lineman blocked pretty well. We controlled the ball a lot in the first half and they shut us down in the second half.”

Drew McQuarrie led the Generals offense, completing 24 of 41 passes for 328 yards, with five touchdowns and two interceptions. All five touchdown passes went to Cooper Gorski, who finished with 10 catches for 163 yards, and Kyler Booker had four receptions for 88 yards.

While John Stark did all of its damage through the air, Plymouth’s Garrett Macomber led the way on the ground, carrying the ball 46 times for 215 yards and three touchdowns. Owen Brickley also had a touchdown run for the Bobcats, while Roy connected with Jordan Docen on a 36-yard touchdown pass.

“That’s seven games in a row with over 200 yards,” Sanborn said of Macomber. “He’s a beast. I think he’s the best running back in Division II, if not one of the best in the state.

“If he was playing for Pinkerton or Exeter right now, everyone would be calling him one of the best in the state. He takes nothing and makes something out of it. And he’s playing every snap on defense, too.”

The Generals got a heavy dose of the junior in the first half, as he carried the ball 31 times, including all but three plays on Plymouth’s 16-play, 58-yard touchdown drive to open the game. Macomber scored on a 1-yard run to make it 7-0, and after forcing John Stark to punt, he capped a 14-play, 59-yard drive with a 6-yard scoring run.

McQuarrie answered that score with an 8-yard touchdown toss to Gorski to get the Generals on the board, but late in the half, the senior quarterback was picked off by Brickley. Five plays later, Macomber scored from 2 yards out to make it 21-7 with 12 seconds left in the half.

John Stark got the ball back with nine seconds to go, and McQuarrie hit Leif Mailloux for a 47-yard gain to the Bobcats’ 13. The Generals sent the kicking unit out for a field goal, but Plymouth took a timeout, and after, John Stark sent the offense back out.

“Had they not called that timeout, we would have kicked it,” Rod McQuarrie said. “That gave us time to think a little bit.”

Drew McQuarrie hit Gorski in the back of the end zone for a touchdown on the last play of the half to make it 21-14.

“We called a timeout because we wanted a particular defense in,” Sanborn said. “Do you call a timeout or not? They ended up with a touchdown.”

And the Generals got another one on the first play of the second half, as McQuarrie and Gorski connected for a 57-yard touchdown that made it 21-21.

John Stark forced Plymouth to punt on its next possession and got a big return from Mailloux to start at the Bobcats’ 48. Seven plays later, McQuarrie found Gorski for a 24-yard touchdown and a 28-21 lead.

The Bobcats caught a break early in the fourth quarter, when Generals’ punter Jack Glew fumbled a fourth-down snap and Plymouth took over at the John Stark 37. Two plays later, Roy found Docen for a score to tie the game at 28 with 11:00 left to play.

John Stark came right back with an 11-play, 58-yard drive that ended with McQuarrie’s fifth touchdown pass to Gorski, this time for 11 yards out, to make it 35-28 with 8:04 remaining.

A flag for holding and a big loss on second down left Plymouth facing a third-and-25 on the next possession, and the Bobcats were forced to punt, giving John Stark the ball back with 5:14 left.

But three plays later, McQuarrie scrambled to avoid a sack and tried to throw the ball away. Instead, Brickley came up with the interception, and on the next play, he raced through the defense for a 38-yard touchdown to tie it with 4:17 remaining.

“Before that pick, I said Drew you’ve got to take care of the ball,” Rod McQuarrie said. “If you’re getting sacked, take your sack. He always wants to make something happen.

“After that happened, I said we’ll stop them on defense, and of course they score right away. I just wanted on that last possession to get close enough for Jack Glew to get to kick. We figured we’d have to at least get to the (Plymouth) 25 and they stopped us.”

John Stark got to the Plymouth 37, but a fourth-down pass by McQuarrie was incomplete and the Bobcats took over. After Macomber ran for five yards on first down, the Generals stopped him on second, setting up a third-and-5 and Hewey’s interception return.

“Kid picked it and did a great job,” Sanborn said. “Am I kicking myself calling that play? You bet, but we knew that was there and we had to call it eventually.”