Stevens football blows past Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough for D3 title

DURHAM – The revenge tour for the Stevens High School football team had one more show scheduled for Saturday.

The Cardinals did not disappoint.

Stevens dominated the third quarter, turning what had been a close game at halftime into a convincing 46-20 win over Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough in the Division III championship game at the University of New Hampshire’s Wildcat Stadium.

After knocking off Monadnock last week in the semifinals, the Cardinals avenged what was perhaps their worst game of the regular season with a win over the Lakers and the program’s first football title since 1968.

“People have been waiting a long time,” Stevens coach Paul Silva said. “I’m happy for this group to be the ones to give it to them. We lost two games on the year and beat both in the playoffs.”

Stevens (9-2) did it behind a big game from its playmakers on offense, with quarterback Henri Bourque leading the way.

Bourque was 13 of 18 for 222 yards and two touchdowns on the day, also rushed for 91 yards on 10 carries, while Parker Smith caught nine passes for 164 yards and a touchdown. Richard Bell had 117 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 28 carries while Zach O’Brien added 52 yards and a TD on the ground, and caught four passes for 58 yards and another score.

The Cardinals held a 485-320 advantage in yards and had possession for 16:27 in the second half.

“In the regular season, we had our worst game of the year,” O’Brien said of Stevens’ 57-12 loss to ILM. “We were kind of scared to be honest. We went in not knowing what we were going to do. (Saturday) we had our heads straight. All 11 of us did our jobs and played as one.”

The Lakers (8-3) got a big game from quarterback Ryan Kelly, who was 14 of 23 for 241 yards and a touchdown through the air. Andrew Brothers had two rushing touchdown in the first half, but just 44 yards on the day, as the Cardinals were able to shut down ILM’s rushing attack, holding it to 79 yards.

“We decided we weren’t going to sit back in a zone and let them pick us a part,” Silva said. “We wanted to attack. They throw a lot of slants so I wanted to get people into the slant lane. I thought we could cover the outside stuff. It worked out for us.”

The teams traded touchdowns on their opening drives, with ILM going 58 yards in eight plays and scoring on a 2-yard run by Brothers. Stevens answered with a nine-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard run by Bell, and Bourque hit O’Brien for the two-point conversion to make it 8-7.

The Cardinals had a chance to add to the lead early in the second quarter, but Bourque was picked off by Kelly in the end zone to end the drive. The Lakers responded by driving down to the Stevens’ 24-yard line but turned the ball over on downs.

With 3:50 left in the half, ILM took over at its own 35 and went on an eight-play drive, finding the end zone again on a 1-yard run by Brothers to go up 14-8.

Stevens responded with a three-play drive that took 1:03 and went back on top on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Bourque to O’Brien. The sophomore quarterback then found Bell for the conversion and a 16-14 lead.

The Cardinals got the ball to start the second half, and six plays in, Bourque hit Smith for a short gain. The senior broke a tackle, got a block from O’Brien and raced down the sideline for a 61-yard touchdown. The conversion from Bourque to Smith was good to put Stevens up 24-14.

“We thought we could take advantage of a stop-and-go, and we thought they bit a couple of times on the out stuff,” Silva said. “Parker ran the slant and we hurt them with it.”

O’Brien felt that touchdown gave the Cardinals momentum that they wouldn’t give up.

“Receiving that second half kickoff and Parker punched it in for us, that’s when we knew we had the momentum going our way,” he said. “Last year, we played Bow and we had the lead and then we couldn’t finish. We wanted to start quickly and finish it off.”