The Alvirne High School Football team accomplished what they needed to on Friday night with a victory on the road over the Merrimack Tomahawks. Fans and the team, expected the win would get them into the Division I playoffs this coming weekend.
That was not to be however, as the Monday brackets, the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association revealed that despite a very close 28-26 victory over the Tomahawks, the Londonderry Lancers were still able to grab the 13th seed, with their win over Windham, edging out the Broncos and getting the final playoff spot.
Coming into the game, Alvirne had won two consecutive games, with a 3-5 record and Merrimack was coming off their biggest loss of the season, a 16-51 defeat to Nashua South, and sat at 3-4.
The Broncos provided some very exciting moments in the game and looked extremely strong out of the gate, pushing the ball down the field on the ground throughout the game.
In Alvirnes first drive, on the first play of their second set of downs, from their 45-yard line, senior runningback Mikey Landmesser carried the ball down the right side, evading tackles at the line, and dashed his way to the endzone for a quick six-points with just a minute an a half off the clock.
Suleiman Suleiman made the extra-point and put the AHS team up 7-0.
The Tomahawks immediately bit into that lead with a 55-yard return on the kick-off, putting them at the Broncos 35-yard line to start their first possession with excellent field position.
The Tomahawks scored with a short screen pass at the 20-yard line, resulting in six-points. Alvirne spoiled the Tomahawks plan of a two-point conversion for a 7-6 lead.
The Broncos had another fast scoring effort on the second drive of the game, starting at their 40-yard line.
Once again, on the first place of the second set of downs, Landmesser sprinted through the line, barely touched and finished with a 48-yard touchdown.
Another Suleiman kick put Alvirne up 14-6 with 7:25 left in the first quarter.
After a successful defensive stop by AHS, their third drive ended like the other two, putting seven more points up on the board, this time with a 10-yard Landmesser run and another successful kick for a 21-6 to start the second quarter with a 15-point lead.
The Broncos managed one more score in the final seconds of the first half, with junior quarterback Ethan Dudley keeping the ball and running it in from the one-yard line.
That would be all the scoring the Broncos would do while Merrimack mounted a charge in the second half, scoring three touchdowns of their own, but came up two-points shy of tying.
Landmesser was a big part of the team’s offense, getting 20 carries in his final game as a Bronco and tallying 178-yards of rushing yards with three of the four Alvirne touchdowns.
Dudley had 13 carries in the game for 27-yards with the one touchdown and went one-for-one in pass attempts for a total of 28-yards.
Quinten Tetreault also had 13 carries and racked up 61-yards with the one reception for 28-yards.
With Alvirne and Merrimack finishing the year with four victories, both those that they had a chance to get a spot in the state championship, but the Lancers edged the out despite their 3-5 state record.