Merrimack football hands Exeter its first loss (video)

MERRIMACK – Kyle Newman had never lined up for a last-second, game-winning field goal before.

In fact, before Friday night, he’d only attempted one this football season, and the Merrimack High School senior missed it.

But when Newman lined up for a 20-yarder with 24 seconds left and the Tomahawks down a point to Exeter, none of that was on his mind. Neither were the two big pass plays he was beat on that helped the Blue Hawks erase a two-score deficit in the fourth quart.

All that was on Newman’s mind was making the kick, and that’s what he did, helping lift Merrimack to a 30-28 win over Exeter on Timothy Mark Gibson Military Appreciation Night. The win keeps the Tomahawks’ playoff hopes alive and handed the Blue Hawks their first loss of the season.

“I was thinking it was going to come down to a field goal,” Newman said. “At that point, you’ve got to block everything else out. Get into that zone where you know you can kick it because you practice it every day.”

The kick came after Merrimack (5-3) took over at its own 39-yard line with 2:18 to play. Exeter took its first lead, 28-27 on a 4-yard run by Mason Wallace, moments before, and Merrimack coach Kip Jackson wanted his team to get in the end zone quickly.

“We don’t do a two-minute drill, we do a one-minute drill,” Jackson said. “I wanted to score a touchdown. I love (Newman) and all, and he even said it, he wanted us to score a touchdown. Inside the 15 is where we feel comfortable with him being able to kick on a night like this.”

A mix of runs and passes helped Merrimack move the ball inside the Exeter 10, and once the Tomahawks had a first-and-goal at the 5, they stuck to the run, setting up the field goal.

“It was a little down because I let that touchdown back there,” Newman said. “I was trying to come back from that and work hard and kick that field goal. I looked at the holder, Ryan Fournier, got to give him some love for getting that ball down.”

Justin Grassini was 22 of 37 through the air for 192 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions while Tyler DeNeill had 58 yards and two touchdowns rushing and also picked off Kyle Ball’s final pass of the game to wrapup the win for Merrimack. Joe Eichman also had 87 yards on the ground and a score while Ian Roberts caught six passes for 63 yards and a score.

“I thought we struggled all night,” Exeter coach Bill Ball said. “Inside runs, bubble screens, rallying up the ball, playing in space … not a very good defensive effort. And credit them, it was well-executed. Make no mistake, the better team won.”

Exeter (7-1) got 80 yards rushing and a touchdown from Kyle Ball, and the quarterback was also 8 of 15 for 95 yards with a touchdown and interception. Hunter Long caught three of those passes for 59 yards and a score and Jackson Allen and Wallace also had touchdowns.

But after each team scored on its first two possessions, the Blue Hawks struggled to move against the Merrimack defense. The Tomahawks took a 21-14 lead into halftime after Grassini found Roberts for a 3-yard scoring pass with 14.1 seconds left.

After forcing the ball over on downs to open the second half, Merrimack was in line for more, but Grassini was picked off by Ball at the Exeter 1-yard line. The Tomahawks forced a punt, got the ball at the Blue Hawks’ 34, and this time found the end zone, scoring on Eichman’s 3-yard run.

Exeter was called for unsportsmanlike conduct between the touchdown and the point after, and with the ball moved up, Jackson decided to go for two points. The Blue Hawks swarmed DeNeill on the play, bring him down for a loss, and leaving Merrimack up 27-14 with 4:50 left in the third.

“I thought it was going to bite us,” Jackson said. “We thought it would be a close game. If you’ve watched any of Exeter’s games this year, we felt it would come down to that and I wanted to be a point up, not a point down. It turned out to be a point down.”

The Blue Hawks took over on their own 25 with 10:46 to play and covered the 75 yards in 10 plays, getting 15 yards on a roughing the passer call, and another 14 on a pass from Ball to Allen to the Merrimack 18. Two plays later, Ball found Long behind the defense for a 15-yard touchdown.

After Merrimack went three-and-out, Exeter got the ball at its own 17 with 6:08 left and drove the length of the field 12 plays, picking up 16 and 28 yards, respectively, on completions from Ball to Long. The second got the Blue Hawks to the Merrimack 4, and Wallace scored on the next play.

DeNeill returned the kickoff to the Merrimack 39, setting up the Tomahawks’ game-winning drive.

“We had to play physical and finish the game,” Jackson said. “We played Salem and Pinkerton and we were winning in the second half, just like we were (Friday), and we found a way to lose. Obviously, the other teams played well, but we didn’t finish those games. We had the opportunity to not finish, but the kids picked it up on that last drive.”