In its opener, Windham stays close for a half before Pinkerton pulls away

DERRY — After a long wait, the Windham High football team on Saturday finally got its chance to play a game this season.

The Jaguars gave a valiant effort in trailing Pinkerton Academy 6-0 at halftime, but the Astros scored four touchdowns in the second half and pulled away for a 34-0 Division I victory.

“We talked about our mistakes at halftime; we made a lot of mistakes,” Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly said. “I told them to come out in the third quarter and see who we are, and I was very pleased.”

Windham wasn’t allowed to kick off two weeks ago like everyone else because a COVID-19 outbreak at Windham High School at the onset of the academic year forced all athletic activities to pause. Windham coach Jack Byrne said the team has been practicing the past two weeks and that he was grateful to be able leaad his team back into competition.

“It’s always great. We just talked about it. There are going to be some times where we’re going to be frustrated,” Byrne said. “You don’t put in all the good work, lose to a good team like that and feel like sunshine and rainbows all day, but we appreciated what we were doing.”

Windham (0-1) was stopped on fourth down on the game’s opening drive and Pinkerton (2-1) responded with a nine-play, 44-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Evan Wilson with 6:07 left in the first half.

“Our guys fought hard and they love football and we’ll take this anytime,” Byrne said. “We would’ve liked a different result, but we’ll get back to work. Every single second of that was awesome.”

Pinkerton came out focused and carved its way through 64 yards on seven plays, ending with quarterback Nathan Campos’ 3-yard keeper to make it 12-0.

Jacob Albert then took advantage of a pair of Windham turnovers to score Pinkerton’s next two touchdowns, as his 26-yard scamper up the middle in the third was followed by an 11-yard touchdown run in the fourth.

Albert finished with 121 yards on 15 carries. He’s said his team is starting to execute better after a season-opening loss at Londonderry.

“We had very good blocking to open up holes in the second half, so it helped a lot,” Albert. “The second half everyone followed with their blocks and I was able to set them up right and cut back left. We’re executing better.”