Winnacunnet's Zachary Fredericks reaches out to try to grab Londonderry QB Drew Heenan duirng Saturday's Divison I title game in Exeter. (Courtesy photo by Joe Marchilena/NH-HighSchoolSports.com)

EXETER – Saturday’s Division I high school football title game was a tale of two halves.

And ultimately a tale of Londonderry’s second state championship in three years. The Lancers (11-1) overcame a 7-0 halftime deficit, then snapped a 14-14 tie to pull out a 24-14 win over the previously unbeaten Winnacunnet Warriors at Bill Ball Stadium.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Lancers coach Jimmy Lauzon said. “No one predicted us to be here. We had no household names on our roster. It motivated us all year. I’m just so proud of them.”

With the game tied at 14 in the second half, Drew Heenan tossed his second TD pass of the game to Andrew Kullman, this one a 33-yarder, and the Lancers later added a Dylan Wrisley 32-yard field goal with 5:02 left to make it a two-score game, 24-14. Wrisley had saved the day on a long pass play earlier with a touchdown-saving tackle.

The first half was a little different, as

Winnacunnet opened the game with a 17-play, 74-yard drive that took up 8:56, with Kyle Tilley scoring on a 1-yard run.

The Warriors had the ball for 17:09 in the first half and Londonderry had just two possessions, one with 24 seconds left in the half.

But the Lancers tied it on their first possession of the second half, a Heenan-to-Kullman connection of 63 yards, then took a 14-7 lead on Jake Schena’s 12-yard TD run before the Warriors tied it on Tucker McDann’s 8-yard TD run.

Riley Boles ended Winnacunnet’s final possession with a strip sack of Warrior QB Kyle Tilley.

Heenan completed 9 of 11 passes for 201 yards and two TDs, and also ran for 69 yards.  

“They made some adjustments, got us in situations where we didn’t execute it exactly how we wanted to on those plays,” Warriors coach Ryan Francoeur said. “I don’t think I caught up to him (Lauzon) fast enough until the fourth quarter, and the damage was done at that point.

“We had to play flawless. We got close to that at one point and then we made a couple of mistakes. You do those things and they get magnified. It went the other way for us.”

(Information for this report was provided by Joe Marchilena of NH-HighSchoolSports.com)