Souhegan's Charlie Maroun wears a frustrated look in the second half of Pelham's 35-6 Division II title win at Bedford on Saturday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

BEDFORD – Five turnovers. Two touchdowns called back. A top two-way player lost in the first quarter.

And, oh yeah, the opponent’s rushing attack that ate chunks of yards, 380 in total.

In other words, whatever could go wrong did go wrong for the Souhegan High School football team on Saturday in a 35-6 Division II title game loss to Pelham.

“You can’t win football games doing that,” Sabers coach Robin Bowkett said. “Couple killer penalties, couple tough turnovers, then Madux (free safety/receiver McGrath) goes out early with a shoulder.

“It just wasn’t our day today. Hats off to Pelham, they’re a heckuva football team.”

And that No. 2, 12-0 Python team has now won 31 straight games as a program, and jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and really never looked back. This was a much, much different game than the 28-21 Pythons win over the No. 4, 10-2 Sabers late in the regular season in Amherst.

“I think we executed a little better,” Pelham coach Tom Babaian said, his team winning its third straight title, the previous two in Division III. “I think in that first one, we knew we let some things on the field … Moving forward today, that was the emphasis.”

But who could have envisioned the Pythons holding the Sabers to just six points. Souhegan’s J.J. Bright had 68 yards rushing – 60 more than in the first meeting – and QB Romy Jain threw for 154 yards, but those aren’t typical Saber numbers. Meanwhile Pelham’s big rushing total was paced by 144 yards by Alex Carroll and 139 by Ethan Demmons.

“That (limiting the Souhegan running game) is what we intended to do,” Babaian said. “They have a great team; their running back (Bright) and their offensive line is pretty darn good. But we just did a great job today. … We had some different schemes (defensively), but it was more about executing what we practiced and the kids did a great job.”

The game started off on the wrong foot right away when Jain’s third pass of the game’s first possession was picked off by Pelham’s Nathan Migiliore, and that set the winners up at the Saber 22. Three plays later junior back Dom Herrling ran it in from 20 yards out and Pelham was up 7-0 just over three minutes into the contest.

“Great job by them,” Bowkett said. “That’s an awesome defense, the best defense we’ve seen all year. They fly to the football, they have athletes all over the place, they’re huge, like 6-2. They’ve got a lot of great players, and they made a ton of great plays.”

“We made too many mistakes,” Jain said. “We beat ourselves, really.”

The next bad sign came on Souhegan’s ensuing possession, when a 50-yard pass from Jain to McGrath for a TD was called back due to an illegal shift.

Not only was McGrath hurt on the play and lost for the day, Jain then hit Charlie Maroun for a 50-yarder on the other side of the field. But while from a distance it looked like Maroun was down, he actually rolled on a Pelham defender and lost the football, the Pythons recovering it. It took them just six plays to grab a 14-0 lead, back Ethan Demmons plowing in from 5 yards out.

A cruel 14 point swing if there ever was one.

“It’s tough to come back when you get a couple of touchdowns called back and then a couple of turnovers,” Bowkett said. “You can’t win championships and football games like that. Not against a great team like Pelham.”

Pelham made it 21-0 early in the second quarter on a monster penalty-filled (both ways) 14-play drive with QB Jake Travis hitting Herrling on a 23-yard strike. Antonio Furtado added the PAT and the Sabers were already down three scores just over 14 minutes in. Ouch.

It’s not that the Sabers didn’t have their chances over the remainder of the half. In fact, with 5:21 left, Jain capped off a 10-play, 64-yard drive with a short TD pass to Maroun. The PAT attempt, though, was blocked.

But more opportunities were missed. Pelham fumbled the ball away at their own 30, and the Sabers had a shot to narrow the gap to one score, but a drive stalled on fourth down at the 26. OK, another fumble, and they got the chance to do it again, and it looked like they had when Jain hit J.J. Bright on a 37-yard catch-and-run for an apparent TD.

Nope. Hold. And any comeback was put on hold. But, well, the Sabers still had possession and a pass interference call in the end zone helped set them up with a first and goal at the Pelham 4. But Jain was picked off in the end zone by the Pythons’ Connor Travis.

Pelham then took the opening second half kickoff, and a 30-yard return to midfield set the Pythons up for an eight-play, 49-yard march with Demmons pushing in from 4 yards out. It was 28-6, and to tough even for a high octane offense like Souhegan to recover from.

“The hold on the screen pass to J.J. before the half was tough,” Bowkett said. “A couple of other close ones down there. But if we punch one in there, you know, then it’s 21-13? We probably needed to get that one, get a stop and keep going.”

The Pythons added a 1-yard run by Demmons with 11:19 to play to account for the final. Over the second half, Pelham ran 39 plays to Souhegan’s 12, just pounding the ball.

“That’s the idea,” Babaian said. “That’s what we came in with as a game plan, and the kids executed it perfectly, so hats off to them. But that’s a very good Souhegan team that we beat, so hats off to them, too.”

“Just wasn’t our day today,” Bowkett said again. “Just hats off to both teams for getting here and getting after it. We’re just proud of our kids.”

DIVISION I SEMIS

It will be a Londonderry-Bedford Divison I final next Saturday at Exeter’s Bill Ball Stadium as the No. 1, defending champion Lancers beat arch rival Pinkerton, 21-7, Saturday in Londonderry.

The Lancers led 14-0 at halftime before the Astros scored in the third quarter to cut the lead in half. However, Londonderry put it away witha fourth quarter score.

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