Campbell's Nick Hershberger (30) makes a ring gesture to the crowd while his brother Scott (5) and Jack Kidlwell (13) also celebrate the Cougars' 16-14 Division III title win over Trinity on Saturday in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

AMHERST – He carried the football 45 times for 208 yards, but if there’s one play in Saturday’s Division III championship game vs. Trinity of Manchester that Campbell’s Scott Hershberger will remember the most, it was on the defensive end.

The 6-0, 185-pound sophomore kept Trinity quarterback Jack Service out of the end zone on a two-point conversion try at the very end of the third quarter, and it made all the difference in the Cougars’ 16-14 title win at Souhegan’s Saber Field.

“Before the game, they were talking about having a short term memory,” Hersberger said of his coaches. “Not letting a single play bring you down. That exact play got them a touchdown earlier in the game, so I corrected it and I just did what people told me to do.

“I knew Jack Service wanted to win the game for them. I just had to stay disciplined, and I watched for it, it happened, and stopped him.”

“It was a bang-bang play, it was right at the goal line, either you get in or you don’t,” Trinity coach Rob Cathcart said.

It was an old fashioned, block, run, tackle type game, the way the Cougars like it, as they dominated time of possession – a whopping 39:06 to 8:06 for the 10-1, top seeded Pioneers.

In other words, size over speed.

With a few exceptions, the Cougars just climbed on Hershberger’s back and rode him all the way to the title.

“We’re a grinding team,” Hershberger said, “and this was a grinding game.”

The game plan was certainly simple.

“I told you if we could tackle (Trinity’s DeVohn Ellis), block and run hard, life would be good,” Campbell coach Glenn Costello said, his program winning its first state title since 2017 and the third football crown in school history. “Right off the bat I felt confident the kids were executing.”

Hershberger had rushed for over 200 yards in the first meeting back on Sept. 30, but Trinity prevailed, 36-22. This time, Campbell’s defense held tough with the exception of two big Pioneer plays.

Campbell had taken the early lead, 8-0, thanks to a 38-yard Hershberger TD run and his subsequent two-point conversion run.

It looked like it would be that way at the half, but the Cougars got a little greedy on a fourth-and-2 call from the Pioneer 40 with 56 seconds left, tossing an incomplete pass rather than giving the ball to Hershberger. Trinity two plays later hit a halfback option pass, Anthony DiGiantommaso to Ellis for 43 yards down to the Cougar 14 with 24 seconds left in the half. Ouch.

It led to the Service 5-yard TD run Hershberger had referred to with just 8.4 seconds left in the half, and Ellis got a two-point run to tie the game going into the break.

“I’ll be honest, I thought it was third down,” Costello admitted. “They beat us on a trick play, I took responsibility for that, and I just told the kids that we had to play four quarters. And we did.”

Hershberger had 115 yards on 23 carries at the half, so it was pretty much the same in the second half. He scored on a two-yard run and added the conversion run to make it 16-8 with just 2:45 left in the third quarter. It was a 13 play drive, the only possession the Cougars had – or needed – in the third quarter.

But Trinity struck back, DiGiantommaso zipping around the right side and racing 54 yards down the field to make it 16-14 on the quarter’s final play. Then Service was stopped and Campbell took the two point lead into the final 12 minues and kept it.

Big plays for the Pioneers, but just not enough of them.

“We were just fortunate early in the season to make some plays when we had our opportunites,” Cathcart said. “Today, we weren’t able to execute as well when we had opportunties. …

“We knew they were going to ground and pound, and that’s what they did.”

Hershberger said he was told before the game he was going to switch up with the other backs, Logan Daigle, Braydon White, etc., especially since he had been suffering lately from a cranky left knee.

Trinity’s Paul Thibault tries to bring down Campbell back Scott Hershberger, something that wasn’t easy to do duirng the Cougars’ 16-14 Divison III title win Saturday in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“I thought I was going to get less carries,” Hershberger said, “but if there was any game to push through, it was this one.”

And then came a remarkable fourth quarter drive, 13 plays, just 36 yards, that didn’t produce any points but chewed up some 8:08 on the clock. It stalled at the Pioneer 16 but four plays later Kanaley stripped Service of the ball, Nick Hershberger pounced on it with 2:42 left and the Cougars simply ran out the clock as champions.

They had lost to the Pioneers and Monadnock in back-to-back games just over a month ago, but here they were, beating both in the playoffs to grab the championship.

Who knew?

They did.

“Football is so long,” Costello said. “We started, when, August 13, and for them to sustain greatness all year, is super difficult. We had a hiccup, but what I loved about this group is they learned from it, they grew, and we didn’t make the same mistake.”

“We peaked,” Hershberger said, “at the right time.”