Merrimack football beats Goffstown for first playoff win since 1995

MERRIMACK – Justin Hufft knew his Goffstown High School football team faced an uphill battle Saturday against Merrimack.

With every play the Grizzlies ran in the first quarter, that hill seemed to get a steeper and steeper.

While Goffstown was losing players to injuries, including its first two quarterbacks, Merrimack was making big plays on offense, as the Tomahawks cruised to a 42-7 win in the Division I quarterfinals.

It’s the first playoff victory for Merrimack since 1995, and it sends the Tomahawks to the semifinals, where they will play at Bedford on Nov. 12.

“It’s a great feeling to win our first playoff game,” Merrimack quarterback Justin Grassini said. “That’s the most important thing, that we won. We stepped it up a lot. It was probably our best game that we’ve played on offense the whole season.”

Grassini led the way for Merrimack (9-1), completing 32 of 42 passes for 391 yards  with six touchdowns and an interception. On his first touchdown pass of the game – a 31-yard completion to Tyler DeNeill – Grassini broke the record for scoring passes in a single season and is at 41 for the year.

DeNeill had the first two touchdown catches from Grassini and finished with eight receptions for 82 yards while Danny Vanacek also caught eight balls for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Brody Kelley added six catches for 36 yards and a score and also ran for 26 yards.

“They dropped everybody they could and tried to take away a lot of the passing lanes,” Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. “Later on, they started to bring pressure. I think we’ve grown quite a bit in terms of our preparation. They were able to build up to the game time and learn how to get ready for it.”

Goffstown (7-3) struggled to move the ball on offense, as quarterbacks Nik Moquin (right ankle) and Charles Keith (concussion) were knocked out of the game in the first eight offensive snaps for the Grizzlies.

Peyton Bickford came in and threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to Franklin Castillo-Diaz on his first play, but finished just 6 of 17 for 92 yards with an interception to go with the touchdown.

“We were not prepared to lose two quarterbacks,” Hufft said. “We were limited. We came in with a lot of injuries and that made it worse. Merrimack played an outstanding game and they beat us. They were the better team. Their kids played their hearts out and they were well-prepared.”

Early on, Goffstown’s defense kept it in the game, as the Grizzlies stopped Merrimack on its first drive after the Tomahawks had moved down to the Goffstown 25-yard line. But the Grizzlies went three-and-out and were forced to punt. Merrimack took eight plays to go 54 yards and find the end zone on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Grassini to DeNeill.

Two plays after the ensuing kickoff, Moquin ran up the middle for seven yards, but had to be helped off the field with what Hufft said might be a broken ankle. On fourth down, Merrimack blocked a punt and got the ball back on the Goffstown 14.

But the Grizzlies defense held again and forced the ball back over on downs, taking over at their own 25-yard line. Two plays later, Keith was stopped on a run up the middle by a group of Merrimack players and was shaken up. Bickford came in and found Castillo-Diaz behind the Merrimack defense, and the senior outran everyone to the end zone to tie the game 7-7 with 1:34 left in the first quarter.

Merrimack would answer with two touchdowns on its next two drives to go up 20-7 with 5:11 left in the half. The Tomhawks were on the verge of making it three in a row, but Grassini was picked off by Goffstown’s Jacob Brown at the Grizzlies’ 7-yard line.

Again, Goffstown couldn’t move the ball and ended up taking a safety. Merrimack took over at the Grizzlies’ 45 and four plays later, Grassini found Vanacek for a 20-yard touchdown and a 28-7 lead at halftime.

“Our kids fought their tails off and I’m proud of them, but Merrimack was the better team,” Hufft said. “We’d stop them at times, like we held them on the first drive, but we were giving the ball back to them so fast. They hit some plays. They got guys open, sometimes wide open and sometimes just by a hair, and the quarterback made some great throws.”

Grassini added two more touchdowns in the second half, a 40-yard pass to Vanacek with 3:23 left in the third quarter and 5-yard strike to Kelley that finished off the scoring with 7:50 left in the game.

Merrimack moves on to play Bedford in a semifinal game that is schedule to kickoff at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bedford High School.

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