Merrimack's Kyle Crampton celebrates as he walks into the end zone past East's Colby Bost for the first score in Saturday's 26-0 West win in the annual CHaD All-Star Game at Saint Anselm College. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER – Merrimack High School football coach Kip Jackson had a nice grin on his face in the Saturday heat at sun-baked Grappone Stadium.

Why? Simple. He the West squad assistant had just seen two of his favorite now-former Tomahawks do what they had done their whole careers for him – make plays.

‘Hawks QB Kyle Crampton and his favorite receiver, Shea Goodwin, both scored touchdowns in the West’s 26-0 win over the East in the 10th annual CHaD East-West All-Star Game at Saint Anselm College.

“It’s a great combination,” Jackson said. “I’m glad the rest of the state got to see them in action today. I miss them every day, not just what they do on the field, but their personalities. This week was great for people to be able to experience that.”

Crampton scored the first points of the game on a 10-yard run with 8:36 left in the first half, and overall he rushed for 38 yards on nine carries and completed 5 of 9 passes for 56 yards. He and the other West QB, game MVP Joe Mikoll of Bedford kept the West offense rolling to the tune of 420 total yards. Mikoll was well deserving of the MVP honrs with his 11-of-19, 220 yards and two TD passes on the day.

And one of those TDs was to none other than Goodwin, who caught five passes for 111 yards – 77 of those coming on a catch in the flat that he took, made a defender miss and was off to the races to make it 19-0 with 5:08 left in the third quarter.

“Good Lord, West head coach Robin Bowkett of Souhegan said. “We loved (Goodwin) on film. He caught that glance post, make some guy miss, and I didn’t realize he was that fast. Just an explosive play.”

“I had a slow week of practice,” Goodwin, who is headed to play at St. Lawrence University, said. “I knew once it turned into game time, I catch one hitch, and I start feeling it.”

And the TD?

“It was an RPO (run-pass option), and Joe found me, we connected, I saw an opening and I went,” Goodwin said.

Crampton said his own touchdown surprised him, as he stepped back and then saw the opening to run. “It wasn’t even the read,” he said. “It was crazy. I saw they had padded that side heavily, and I had to make something happen. We had two possessions on offense, no scores, and after that we turned up, everyone did their jobs and we started playing well.”

“That was great for (Crampton) to gain that confidence,” Bowkett said. “Joe was just a little bit ahead in terms of knowing the offense, but hey, Kyle’s played football a long time, he’s going to play in college (Salve Regina) and he’s going to make some plays.”

The other story of the game was the West defense. Bowkett said he liked how he had a group of players who could swarm to the ball, and that’s what they did yesterday, sparked by a fourth down stop at the 1-yard line on East’s first drive of the game that kept what looked to be a sure score waiting to happen.

“We had a bunch of guys that hadn’t played positions that they were used to,” Bowkett said. “We just felt like with the team we had and the team we were playing, that was going to give us the best shot. Just an awesome job by Coach (Branden) Lilley and Coach Jackson and our players on defense. Just a phenomenal job to pitch a shutout in any sport, but especially this.

“It literally took a credit card to measure that thing (on the goal line stand). And we just felt really good about it.”

Milford’s Caden Zalenski and Goffstown’s Antonio Kapos smothered East back Jack Mackiernan (Pinkerton), but it was close.

“It was really all a team thing,” Zalenski said of the defensive effort, as he was one of those players who played out of positon (defensive line instead of linebacker). “We all came together. And personally, even though I played linebacker all season, it was just about having the motor. So even though it was D-line, it didn’t matter. Just have to play hard.”

“Guys like Zalenski and Myles Rheinhardt (Bow) who hadn’t played a lot of D-line before, but we had a feeling they were going to be studs on defense and they were,” Bowkett said. “We did a great job of utilizing all of our players, and keeping guys as fresh as possible.”

One of those was Nashua South alum Josh Compoh, who saw significant time at defensive end.

“That was actually really fun,” Compoh, who had two tackles, said. “I always really wanted to play D-end,but it never made that much sense (at South). It actually felt really comfortable.

“We were the underdogs going into this game, and we came together during the week and really wanted to make a statement on the defensive line.”

His former teammate Connor Rowsell, also had a good game with four tackles (three solo).

The West made another big defensive stop, right before the half, and it involved another former Milford player – Logan Barnhill. Barnhill, who led the West in tackles with six (four solo, two assists), stopped East receiver Thomas Ahlers on the 5 yard-line after he caught a 12-yard pass from his QB, Dover’s Darian Lopez-Sullivan on the final play of the half.

West, which had gotten its second score earlier on a Mikoll 14-yard TD pass to former Bulldog teammate Andrew Grudinskas with 2:28 left in the half, took a 13-0 lead into the break. West’s other score came late, a 31-yard Nyeoti Punni run with 3:37 to play.

West now has a 7-3 lead in the series with its second straight win. All-in-all, a great experience.

“Of course,” Zalenski said. “It’s for the kids.”

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