The Alvirne High School football squad took another step towards establishing itself as a Division I powerhouse this season.
The Broncos added to their win total with a third consecutive victory on Friday night, Sept 20, by beating the Timberlane Regional High School Owls by a score of 48-20.
It certainly wasn’t looking like it would be a lopsided victory for the home team during the first half. Both teams were able to battle back and forth, with Alvirne coming away with a 28-20 advantage by the time the band took the field for its halftime show.
It turned out that three touchdowns would be all that the Broncos would give up in the game, with the AHS defense shutting down the Owls for the entire second half.
Timberlane was able to take any early lead on the first drive of the game, the Owls having success on a series off passing plays. In that drive, the Broncos gave up a big third down and 14 allowing their opponent to complete a pass to the 45-yard line.
The Owls then worked their way down field to the Alvirne 35-yard line with the drive eventually ending with a long touchdown pass to end zone at 7:22 in the first.
Down by seven, the Broncos first play of the night was a long run turned back by a holding penalty. The team’s second play was a bad snap that went high and slipped off the fingers of quarterback, Charlie Crawford, for a fumble and the games first turnover.
The following play was the game’s second turnover, an interception by Quintin Tetreault resulting in a 75-yard return for a touchdown making it 7-7 at 6:40.
The AHS defense was much better in the following Timberlane drive and it resulted in the game’s third turnover. Mike Landmesser had his team’s second interception of the game, at midfield, where AHS was able to march down field for and tally seven more points.
Landmesser made it 14-7 at 2:10 in first, with his first of five touchdowns in the game, carrying the ball in from the Timberlane six-yard line.
It didn’t take long for the Owls to respond, starting at their own 27, it took three plays to pay dirt with 39 seconds left in the first for the 14-14 tie game.
The Broncos got their third touchdown of the night at 4:31 in the second when Landmesser ran in his second of the night in a third and goal play from the one-yard line.
With just over a minute left in the half, the Owls were able to get within one pushing the Broncos down the field, but failing to cap it off with the extra-point, making the score 21-20.
The Broncos responded when at the one-minute mark, Crawford connected on a pass to senior tight-end, Ryan Rocheleau, from the AHS 30-yard line. Rocheleau nearly got into the endzone, but was stopped at the four.
Alvirne made it 28-20 with 37 seconds left in the half with yet another Landmesser running touchdown. This one was on second down with two yards to go to get into the endzone.
In the second half, the Broncos were able to get into the Timberlane endzone three more times to wide up with a 28-point victory.
The first Alvirne play from scrimmage, after a quick three-and-out by Timberlane, set the tone for the rest of the game.
Landmesser was handed the ball at the Alvirne 30-yard line then broke through and sprinted to the Owls 25-yard line.
It took only three more plays for Landmesser to put the ball in the endzone again and start the second half at 34-30, at 10:40 in the third.
In the next Owls drive, senior Ryan Rocheleau made an interception that set up Landmesser for his fifth touchdown of the night. Landmesser would put up 133-yards on the ground to lead the team in the lopsided win.
Crawford ended up going eight for 13 in passing with 200-yards completed in the air.
Senior kicker, Shawn Boudreau, was good in all but one extra-point attempt.
The Alvirne crew will head to neighboring Windham High School for their fourth game of the season. The Broncos hope to continue its winning streak by beating the Jaguars (1-2) on Friday night, Sept. 27.
Windham is coming off a 24-8 loss to the Pinkerton Academy Astros.
The Jaguars only win was against the Timberlane Owls where they had a 53-7 win at home in the first week of the season.
