Wilmington

ting from 30 to 35 yards out during pregame.”

After junior defensive tackle Jake Chirichiello stuffed Burlington QB Nick Berglund for a loss of a yard on a third down running play to force the Red Devils to punt, WHS started the game-winning drive on its own 45 with 11:49 left.

From there, eight straight running plays moved the ball to the Burlington 4-yard line. Then Gavin Erickson and QB Pedro Germano were stuffed for a combined 3-yard loss, pushing the ball back to the 7yard line and forcing Turner to call out Smolinsky.

“When we got down there, we tried to stay low-key and consistent,” he said. “We felt like we didn’t want to go out there and throw something crazy on that third down, because we wanted to stay where we were so we could try to kick the field goal.

“What really hurt us were those two negative plays. We wanted to go back with Marcello (Misuraca), because he was the hot hand, but we ended up going backwards twice and putting us in a tougher spot. We tried to get Pedro to roll out and we told him if it was there to throw it, if not keep it and then we’ ll kick the field goal and play defense. At that point, there’s no reason not to trust the defense, because they had been phenomenal all day.”

Indeed they were. Burlington finished the game with 67 total yards of offense, including 18 on the ground on 22 carries. Erickson had an early interception at the Wilmington 9-yard line, while Shane Roberts and Chirichiello both had QB sacks, as did junior John

Rhind, who provided the biggest hit.

After Smolinsky’s field goal, Burlington’s Matt Pinkham returned the kickoff 35 yards to the Wilmington 40. Two plays later, the ball was moved to the 20 after a facemask penalty. Two running plays after that, it was moved to the 13, before Chirichiello came up with a big play.

Two plays later, Rhind sacked the QB for a 13-yard loss. That made it fourth-and19 from the Wildcats 19 with 18 seconds left, and an incomplete pass ended the drive, giving WHS the win.

“I thought we gutted it out and the kids played really hard,” said Turner. “Defensively we were fantastic and were all over them. They had a hard time with our guys upfront. I said this before, but we’re not big up front, but we’re athletic and those kids are fast and they get after it.”