West beats East for 5th straight win in the CHaD All-Star Football Game (video)

MANCHESTER – There wasn’t anything specific the West all-star football team did when defending inside its own 20-yard line.

As the field got smaller, West’s defense just played tougher.

Four times Friday night, the East offense drove into the red zone, and on the first three occasions, came away with nothing. On the final trip, East finally came away with points, but by then, it was too late, as West took a 13-7 win in the 13th CHaD East-West All-Star Football Game played at Saint Anselm College’s Grappone Stadium.

It’s the fifth straight win in the series for the West and its 10th win overall. Colby Nyhan (Concord), who scored West’s first touchdown and had seven tackles on defense, was named the Bo Dickson Most Valuable Player.

“The kids just did what they were supposed to do and played well,” West coach Kip Jackson (Merrimack) said. “We had talked all week about the fact that they were going to face adversity and they were just going to have to play together and play for each other.”

West lost the yardage (246-231) and time of possession (36:00-23:59) battles, but those three defensive stands, combined with interceptions by Peter Suozzo (Bedford) and Jayden Pares (Goffstown), helped it pull off the win.

“What I love is, the kids fought to the end,” East coach Steve Abraham (Salem) said. “The kids played hard, they played together, and they kept their mouths quiet. It just was a hard-hitting football game.”

With the teams combining for just 123 passing yards, both sides turned to their running games. East finished with 198 yards on the ground on 55 carries, with Kevin Todisco (Salem) leading the way with 17 attempts for 80 yards.

But the biggest run of the night came from Nyhan, who capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown run, and then kicked the extra point to give West a 7-0 lead with 11:54 left in the second quarter.

“I just saw a lane, took it, cut up and scored,” Nyhan said. “We were going against a very strong East team. Scoring was big.”

Nyhan finished with 39 yards rushing and was 3 for 3 passing for 20 yards, while Jack Maye (Bedford), the West’s other quarterback, ran for a team-high 51 yards and was 5 for 16 passing for 55 yards and an interception.

That pick came on the game’s first drive, when, on third-and-7 near midfield, the East’s Daniel Hughes (Salem) stepped in front of a West receiver to intercept Maye’s pass. East drove down to the West 18-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs.

East put another long drive together at the end of the first half, going 73 yards in 13 plays to reach the West 7. But facing fourth-and-5 in the final minute before halftime, Abraham opted to attempt a field goal, but the 25-yard attempt by Blake Thompson (Londonderry) was wide to the right.

“We didn’t know if we would punt the ball or kick a field goal because we didn’t really have a long snapper,” Abraham said. “Those little things hurt us. They (West) were fast. They won some one-on-one matchups. As the field got smaller, they tightened up and played great defense, and we made mistakes.”

With 7:08 left in the third quarter, East started another long drive that carried into the fourth quarter. Facing fourth-and-6 on the final play of the third, Charlie Crawford (Alvirne) found Jack Koutrobis (Windham) for a 14-yard gain and a first down.

But three plays later, a fumble by Crawford turned third-and-5 into fourth down at the West 13-yard line. Todisco picked up just five yards on the play to give the West the ball back at its own 8.

“We had kids that stepped up on the defensive line and our linebackers also played well,” Jackson said. “They were able to have some success on the perimeter in the beginning, but I think the kids understood what they were trying to do and made adjustments.”

West was able to turn the interception by Pares, who returned it to the East 11, into a 3-yard touchdown run by Trevor Wong (Manchester Central) for a 13-0 lead with 2:40 left to play.

In need of a score, Jeremy Mlocek (Timberlane) led a five-play, 65-yard drive in just 1:55, in which the East quarterback scrambled for 31 yards and completed all three passes for 34 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to Scott Hershberger (Campbell) with 39 seconds remaining.

East attempted an onside kick, but Thompson’s kick bounced right to Logan Paradis (Manchester West), who recovered it to close out the game.

Notes

• Paradis and Joey Dykstra (John Stark) led West with nine tackles, while Grant Harris (Souhegan) had eight tackles. Maxwell Cote (Goffstown) had a team-high two tackles for loss and six total.
• West’s Michael Heine (Merrimack Valley) recorded the game’s only sack and was the leading receiver, catching two passes for 38 yards.
• Carson Palma (Londonderry) also had nine tackles to lead East while Charles Dulac (Exeter) and Felix Gonzalez (Salem) had eight apiece.
• The touchdown for East was its first points since the 2023 game, when it scored a touchdown with 3:44 left in the game to force overtime. West ended up winning 13-10 in double OT.