Merrimack back Garron Brown tries to avoid a tackle by Portsmouth-Oyster River's Nick Smith duirng Friday night's Division I prelim round playoff game at Merrmaick.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK – In the playoffs, there are no style points awarded.

No, it’s either win and move on, or lose and go home. Sure, the Merrimack High School 14-6 Divison I preliminary round win over Portsmouth-Oyster River at Student Memorial Field wasn’t a thing of beauty, but then again, it didn’t have to be.

“We are a Jeckyll and Hyde team,” Tomahawks coach Kip Jackson said. “I’ll take an ugly win, though.”

The No. 8 Tomahawks (7-3) could move the ball, but finishing was a problem. Meanwhile, Merrimack’s defense, with the exception of two drives, stifled the ClipperCat attack for the most part. Of course, it didn’t help Portsmouth-OR that it lost its starting QB, Aidan Thomas, early on to an apparent head injury.

The two teams went into the half scoreless; Merrimack missed a 30-yard field goal on the game’s first drive and that seemed to set a tone as far as points, but the Tomahawks had outgained the ClipperCats by a whopping 164-19.

With that theme, Merrimack scored on its first possession of the second half, a five-play, 55-yard march with Tomahawks QB Trent Jackson hitting Owen Sadowski over the middle for a 17-yard TD strike. Reese Lopez hit the PAT for a 7-0 with 8:40 left in the third.

That kick was important, because lo and behold, the Clippers finally got its offense untracked behind the rushing of Gunner Jackson and play of backup QB Evan Graham. They put together a 13 play, 58-yard drive, Graham hitting Nick Smith for 17 yards to the Merrimack 3 on a fourth-and-15. Two plays later Jackson rammed in from the 1 to make it 7-6 with 2:49 left in the third. However, Smith’s PAT kick hit high off the right upright, no good, and the ‘Hawks maintained the lead.

“We changed our blocking scheme at halftime,” Pafford said. “That helped a little bit. Evan Graham, our backup quarterback, has played one game all year. He actually did all right.”

“We had momentum, and I was hoping we’d get a stop, but they did a really good job picking themselves up, driving down and getting that score,” Jackson said. “I think believe it or not, after the ball hitting the upright, changed things a little bit, and we had momentum after that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish a couple of drives.”

But they finished their next one of 65 yards,aided by a Clipper unsportsmanlike penalty that led to the ejection of arguably their best defensive player, defensive tackle Charlie Turner.

Jackson then hit Sadowski again for 20-yarder and Hyde ran it in from 5-yards out. A Lopez PAT and the ‘Hawks were up, 14-6, with 11:31 to play.

“The ejection was big,” Pafford said. “It was going to be fourth down, but they get a first down, an absolute killer. And we were off-sides earlier. Can’t do that.”

Jackson finished the night 18 of 27 with a TD and an interception.

“I know it wasn’t (Jackson’s) best night throwing, but he’s been physically tough and mentally tough all season,” Jackson said. “But he did a good job.”

“Defensively, we’ve been bend but don’t break all year,” Pafford said, his team done at 5-5. “Our goal is to stop ’em. They killed us passing a little bit.”

Also for Merrimack, Garron Brown had three picks and also a first down on a fake punt in the first half. With plays like that, you would have thought the ‘Hawks would have put on more points.

But what’s the difference? Even though the reward is a trip to face top seed and defending Division I champ Londonderry in next weekend’s quarterfinals, the goal is to get that win.

“Kind of like my graduate certificate,” Jackson said with a chuckle. “My GPA’s not on it.”

And his team passed its first test.