Campbell's Jake Landry wraps up Lebanon's Chris Masoan during Saturday's Division III clash in Litchfield. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

LITCHFIELD – Order has been restored in Cougar Country.

Yes, things are much better in Campbell High School football circles as the Cougars responded to their first regular season loss last week in three years with a fairly dominant 24-16 win over visiting Lebanon. The contest was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate.

“I think last week proved that anybody can beat anyone in this league,” Cougars QB Mikey Grace said of the 12-point defeat at the hands of Epping-Newmarket. “Nothing was different in practice. We just tip our hats to Epping and move on. Honestly love that, it’s just motivation, keep moving forward.”

“Last week was behind us,” Campbell coach Glen Costello said. “We were over with that and we had some kids make some big plays. … Jake Landry played out of his mind defensively.”

Moving forward is what sophomore back Brody Pinciaro did to help celebrate his birthday yesterday anytime he had the ball, rushing 14 times for 145 yards while hauling in a 25-yard Grace pass for the game’s first TD. Oh, and just for good measure he had a 63-yard run in the second half that had him eclipse the 1000-yard rushing mark for the season – in just seven games as the Cougars improved to 6-1.

“The agility is there, the breakaway speed is there, and he’s starting to talk more, and his teammates are rallying around him,” Costello said. “A true 1,000 yards, and games one and two he had less than 100. He’s talented. I think by the time his high school career is over he’s going to be synonymous with (Scott) Hershberger, Keegan Mills, the better ones we’ve had. Those are all as good as it gets in New Hampshire high school football.”

Campbell scored on three of its first four possessions, with two-point runs on all three. Their second, a Grace 9-yard run, came with 1:31 left in the first quarter, capping a12-play, 92-yard march. They later added a Braydon White 5-yard TD with a Thomas Channen two-point run (others were by White) and it was 24-0 with 42.7 seconds left in the half. That finished a nine-play, 71-yard march. Methodical, but effective behind a stout offensive line.

“This team runs through the offensive line, the offensive line is dominant,” Grace said, mentioning, among others, center Caleb Vaillancourt, Jude Smith, Brock Martin, Christian Roy and Co. “They don’t get nearly the recognition they deserve … everybody, the tight ends, everybody.”

The Cougars almost added to their total before halftime as they recovered a high snap that went over the head of Lebanon QB Patrick O’Neil at the Raiders 29 with just under 30 seconds left. A Grace TD pass was negated by an illegal procedure call and he was later intercepted so things stayed 24-0 at the half. Still, Grace had a good day, completing 5 of 9 tosses for 93 yards as Campbell put up 361 yards of offense.

Campbell’s Brody Pinciaro celebrates as he hauls in a TD pass from QB Mikey Grace in front of Lebanon defender Mena Antonious during Saturday’s game in Litchfield. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Cougar defense held the 3-3 Raiders to just 40 first half yards. Lebanon scored a couple of late TDs, mainly against reserves, a 10-yard scoring toss to Gavin Gilson with 3:13 left and a Mason Jordan 31-yarder to Oden Mangani with 15.2 ticks left.

Those weren’t impactful, though it could have been interesting if the Cougars hadn’t recovered the ensuing on-sides kick. But just beyond the midway point of the third quarter Campbell senior leader and arguably best player White was ejected as the result of a brief altercation and that may cost him a one-game penalty, that being the regular season finale here vs. unbeaten Monadnock in two weeks.

Costello wasn’t too concerned.

“At the end of the day, it’s a regular season game,” he said. “Whoever is playing, is playing, I don’t necessarily comment on things that are above my pay grade.”

But what he did comment on was that the Cougars, who have next weekend off, took care of business.

“I thought we came out, played physical, we established what we wanted to do…,” Costello said. “And we played well defensively.”

In other words, autumn life as we have come to know it in Cougar Country.