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Emotional Falcons muscle way past Souhegan, 29-26

By Alan Greenwood - Staff Writer | Sep 25, 2021

AMHERST ­- If there everything falls right the next few weeks, the fans at Friday night’s Souhegan High School football game against Bow might be lucky enough to see a rematch.

And if these two teams meet again in the postseason and maintain the intensity level they mustered throughout Bow’s 29-26 win, it will be a showdown to remember.

“With everything this team has gone through there were a lot of questions a lot of wondering what kind of team was going to come to play tonight,” Bow head coach Paul Cohen said.

“We played our brand of football and it showed.”

That brand features plenty of muscle fueled with emotion, and they came in with a full tank of each.

Earlier this month, Bow football player Nick Ouellette and his brother Gavin were killed in a car crash. The community mourned, but nothing prepares high school student-athletes for such an emotional blow.

“We suffered a tragedy, and we made the decision to go on. And to go on we need to play the brand of football we’re famous for,” Cohen said.

Bow (1-2) rallied from a 20-7 halftime deficit, its defense stiffening each time Souhegan (2-2) seemed poised to inflate that lead. It allowed running back Ryan Lover to slice that lead to 20-13 on a 40-yard touchdown gallop early in the third quarter. Lover raced 39 yards, and tacked on the two-point conversion, to give the Falcons their first lead of the game, 21-20, with 7:54 left in the game.

Falcons quarterback Alex Boisvert broke free for a 39-yard TD run, with Lover again adding the two-point conversion, for a 29-20 edge with 4:05 left

“They kind of wore us down a little bit. We kind of sputtered on offense there,” Souhegan coach Robin Bowkett said. “We probably needed to punch one in there at some time in the third quarter to try to put it away. But in the end, we just didn’t get it done.”

The Sabers quickly broke out to a 6-0 lead when JJ Bright took Romy Jain’s pass and glided down the right sideline for a 40-yard catch-and-run to the end zone with 3:11 left in the first quarter.

One minute later, Jain’s pass to Tony Garrant for a 19-yard scoring play, plus his conversion toss to Madux Mcgrath, made it 14-0.

Bow sliced that lead in half on Boisvert’s 5-yard run and the PAT in the second quarter, but Jain connected with Garrant again on a 14-yard scoring play for the 13-point halftime margin.

The Sabers wouldn’t get on the board again until Jain and Garrant connected for a 54-yard touchdown play with 3:48 left in the game. Jain’s pass on the conversion fell incomplete, and the Falcons proceeded to run out the clock following a failed onside kick attempt.

“Our kids never quit If there’s anything our guys are going to do it’s to keep fighting,” Bowkett said. “They’re going to keep swinging”

Neither team pulled any punches Friday night.

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