MANCHESTER, N.H. – One team searching for meaning in a lost season. Another team looking to save a season slowly beginning to decay. Those two teams met just off South Willow Street on Saturday afternoon, combining those two contrasting paths with the eternal struggle for Queen City bragging rights.
In the end, Manchester Central easily earned a 43-7 victory over Manchester Memorial, a score that could have been much higher.
Cooper Verano gave Central a five-yard touchdown run to cap off their first drive, but the Little Green would turn the ball over in the red zone on their next two drives, with senior Dylan Feliciano finally adding a second score off a fumble recovery of their own shortly after that second turnover.
Emmanuel Munyana added a third rushing touchdown for Central and the Little Green came just short of adding a fourth touchdown before the first half expired.
Verano added another score late in the game to go along with Alex Hawkom’s pair of touchdown passes to Feliciano.
Only a 12-yard strike from Chris Coburn to Giovanni Hartford spoiled the Little Green shutout, capping an eight-play, 58-yard Crusader drive midway through the half.
Despite the difference between the two squads in the standings, Central head coach Ryan Ray thought the game would be tighter due to the intra-city rivalry.
“Anytime Central and Memorial play in any sport, it’s a dogfight. I know Memorial loves to hate us and we love to hate Memorial, I think there’s a lot of respect there and you have to get after it,” said Ray.
Memorial head coach Rob Sturgis also noted the emotions of the rivalry as a primary reason why his squad couldn’t continue to keep things close after Central’s early miscues.
“I think we were too hyped if that’s the term. They were so excited that they missed a lot of the little things you need to do in football, we just didn’t execute as well as they did today,” he said.
Memorial will seek its first win of the season next week on the road against Nashua South while Central looks to keep its playoff hopes alive with a win against Concord.
Following this weekend’s action, Central is deadlocked with Concord and Goffstown at 4-3, with Goffstown holding a tiebreaker for the final North/West wild card spot due to strength of schedule. If Goffstown defeats Bishop Guertin next week, the loser of the Central/Concord contest would be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
