News Detail
Husky Football Team Wins NEPSAC Austin Bowl
It was the first postseason victory for the New Hampton School football team since 2004.
“The kids played their hearts out,” New Hampton coach Ed Kiley said. “Canterbury was an outstanding football team. They were tough and fast. But our defense played great. I take my hat off to our defensive coordinator Rick Doell. He had a great game plan.”
The Huskies finished the season with an 8-1 record.
“This is huge,” senior captain Eric Dean said. “I’ve had three opportunities as a high school player to win a championship, and I’ve never been able to have success. It’s an amazing feeling.”
With 8:13 remaining in the third quarter, sophomore quarterback Jake Kiley (Plymouth, NH) hit senior Dean for an 85-yard touchdown pass, and then Dean (Gilford, NH) ran in the two-point conversion to give the Huskies an 8-0 lead.
“Jake did all the work,” said Dean, who caught the ball 30 yards down field. “He threw a perfect ball, laid it right in my hands and I just ran it in the rest of the way.”
Jake Kiley finished with 213 yards passing, a large chunk of that coming in the second half when the Huskies leaned on their passing game. The Saints’ defense put nine players in the box in the first half to combat New Hampton’s four-pronged running attack.
“He’s only a sophomore,” Dean said of his quarterback. “But he carries himself like a senior. And today was no different.”
The biggest play of the game could have been in the final two minutes of the first half. Canterbury went for a touchdown on fourth down on the New Hampton five-yard line, but the Husky defense snuffed out a sweep and preserved the scoreless first half.
“Our kids were fired up after that. We made the adjustments that we needed at halftime and got our passing game going,” Coach Kiley said.
Alex White (Brockton, MA) sealed the victory for the Huskies with 4:27 remaining in the fourth quarter when he picked off a Canterbury pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown.
“I read they were trying to get a screen and I stepped in front of it,” White said. “And no one caught me.”
The interception ended a Canterbury (7-2) drive that began at the Saints own 45-yard line. It was another example of the dominating play of a stellar New Hampton defense that refused to budge. The Huskies, who gave up only 73 points in nine games, contained the Saints’ potent spread offense throughout the afternoon.
New Hampton, which sustained its only loss in a 27-26 defeat to Kimball Union Academy on November 7, received another standout performance from two-way lineman Andrew Lebowitz (Andover, MA). Lebowitz finished with seven tackles, including three sacks. Senior running back Jet Kollie (Lowell, MA) didn’t have many opportunities to break for big runs on offense, but had a team-high nine tackles on defense.
“We played such good defense because we played as a team,” White said. “We stopped their running game and passing game.”
Eddy Norgaisse (Bradford, MA) knocked down three passes and Paul Brown (Dover, NH) added five tackles, including three sacks.
White and Kiley each chalked the team’s success up to a special bond that began to take hold in preseason workouts.
“The team unity has been phenomenal,” said Kiley, who called this team the closest group he’s ever been around in over two decades of playing and coaching.
“It was always about the team,” White said. “It was never about one person.”
The Huskies certainly will have memories for the years to come.
