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CHaD Game: West 26, East 0

Great defense plus good quarterback play usually leaves you on the right side of the scoreboard. That was the case in Saturday’s CHaD New Hampshire East-West All-Star Game played at Saint Anselm College’s Grappone Stadium.

Bedford High School quarterback Joe Mikol tossed two touchdown passes and his team’s defense rose to every challenge to help the West defeat the East 26-0.

Mikol, who will play at Fordham next season, was selected as the game’s MVP after he completed 11 of 19 passes for 220 yards and the two TDs. He also ran for 17 yards on three carries, made two PATs and averaged 40.7 yards on three punts.

“The whole experience was awesome, Mikol said. “Being able to do what you love (play football) and do it for a great cause. It was really fun.”

The East was limited to 253 yards of offense (4.1 yards per play) and was held to 68 yards on 33 rushing attempts. The East was 4 of 14 on third down and 1 of 5 on fourth down.

“It’s a phenomenal job to pitch a shutout in any sport, but especially in something like this,” West coach Robin Bowkett said. “We did a great job of utilizing all of our players and keeping guys as fresh as possible.”

The East came up short on 4th-and-inches from just outside the West 1-yard line in the opening quarter, and missed another opportunity at the end of the first half, which ended with the East on the West 5-yard line.

“When you’re on the losing side you always try to boil it down to some stuff and got down to the 1 there and could have taken the lead – that hurts,” Kevin Hebert said. “Get inside the 5 twice and come up empty – it’s tough because those are big momentum plays.

“We didn’t get the run game going the way I would have liked to, and that opens up everything else. They did a good job on Aidan (Salem running back Aidan McDonald). He was contained pretty much most of the game. That was one of the main things that led to us not being successful – not being able to get it going in the run game.” 

Mikol tossed touchdown passes to high school teammate Andrew Grudinskas (14 yards) and Merrimack’s Shea Goodwin (77 yards). The West also received a 10-yard TD run from Merrimack quarterback Kyle Crampton, and a 31-yard TD run from Lebanon running back Nyeoti Punni.

The West had six sacks for a loss of 47 yards. Merrimack’s Camden Wheeler and Bow’s Myles Rheinhardt each recorded two sacks, and Milford’s Logan Barnhill and Nashua South’s Josh Compoh each had one. 

The West led 13-0 at halftime and 19-0 after three quarters.

Salem’s Tommy Ahlers led the East rushing attack with 38 yards on five carries. Ahlers also caught five passes for 57 yards. McDonald was held to 29 yards on nine attempts.

East quarterback Darian Lopez-Sullivan completed 13 of 25 pass attempts for 137 yards, and rushed for 28 yards on 10 attempts.

The West now has a 7-3 advantage in the series.

“Our defense was crazy today,” Mikol said. “It’s hard not to win when you get a shutout. I’d say that was the biggest part of the game – our defense.”

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