Moving the ball wasn’t a problem for the Windham High football team on Monday against Cheverus. And the Eagles defense didn’t have much trouble stopping the Stags’ offense.

But when it came time to deliver the knockout punch, the Eagles just couldn’t come through. Cheverus scored a defensive touchdown at the start of the third quarter and held on to win, 7-6.

“We shouldn’t have lost. It was a huge game,” said Windham quarterback Jordan Scanlon. “We feel like we were a better team. They came out and played hard and we didn’t really give it all we’ve got. A few calls didn’t go our way and we fumbled the ball a few times, turned it over, and that just killed us. I thought our defense stopped them overall and their offense didn’t score on us. It was our offense that let them score pretty much.”

With the score tied 0-0 at the start of the second half, Cheverus’s Paul Hinman recovered a fumble forced by Topher Pochebit and used a block by Ben Leavitt to go 65 yards for the TD.

“We were getting down in their red zone and it was mental mistake after mental mistake,” said Windham coach Matt Perkins.

Forced to score to stay in the game, the Eagles finally did. Cheverus’s Harrison Wirth was flagged for a pass interference on Kyle MacQueston, moving the Eagles down to the 26-yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, Scanlon hit Travis Cook to make it 7-6. The Eagles attempted to go for two, but Mitchel Woodbury’s pass attempt fell incomplete.

The Eagles got the ball back after a 50-yard interception return by Cook. They took over at the Cheverus 28 and moved the ball down to the six before being hit with a 15-yard personal foul that led to a turnover on downs.

But the Stags couldn’t move the ball and they were forced to punt after three plays.

“They’re a big physical team,” said Cheverus coach Vin Salamone. “We start three sophomores in the offensive line and I knew it was going to be difficult for us to run the ball against them.”

So, the Eagles began another drive with good field position. Jesse Woodman bounced to the outside for 18 to get the ball down to the 27-yard line, then carried two more times to get it down to the 13. This was where the drive stalled out, though. The Eagles got hit with a holding penalty then fumbled the ball away on a reverse.

Scanlon would fumble it away again on Windham’s next possession, but the Eagles got one more chance at the end of the fourth quarter. They took over on their own 18 with 2:18 left on the clock.

Scanlon attempted to go deep down the sidelines to Cook on first and second down, but the receiver couldn’t quite hold on to either pass. It didn’t matter, though, because Scanlon hit Greg Hoar for five yards on third down and scrambled for 11 on fourth. Scanlon then found Hoar for another nine-yard completion before hooking up with Cook for 26. The Eagles had moved down to the Cheverus 31, and there were 50 ticks left on the clock.

That was as far as Windham would go. Scanlon was picked off by Ryan Oakes at the 20.

“We obviously have worked on (the two-minute offense). We moved down the field and threw a ball that … I don’t know. We couldn’t capitalize, couldn’t finish,” said a frustrated Perkins.

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