pomperaug falls in final minute
09.13.2008
By Chris Leone THE NEWS-TIMES

WINDHAM -- For an opening game to the season, Friday night's battle between the Pomperaug and Windham football teams had all the drama of late fall.

After a 2-hour bus ride through I-84 traffic delayed the game and a steady downpour made for a messy contest, Pomperaug's opening season game came down
 to a two-point conversion and ultimately a 22-21 final-minute loss to Windham.

With 38 seconds remaining on the clock and facing fourth and goal, Windham quarterback Spencer Beaudreault scored from the one-yard line on a bootleg.
The Whippets rolled the dice and elected for a two-point conversion. With the game on the line for the second time, the call was once again a Beaudreault
bootleg, and the result was a successful conversion, giving Windham the narrowest margin of victory.

Despite looking sluggish early, it was Pomperaug that scored first. Zackary Ulrich recovered a fumble on the Panther 20 yard-line and rambled off a 51-yard return to
give the Panthers terrific field position. The play set up the Panther offense, which refused to waste it.

Pomperaug went right to its traditional ground attack. Sophomore quarterback Andrew Clements was the beneficiary of good blocking and went
 nearly untouched for a 29-yard touchdown run.

Early in the second quarter, Windham answered with a pair of touchdowns set up by two screen plays from Beaudreault to Greg Merritt. The first went for
22 yards and brought the ball inside the Panther 10-yard-line. It set up a 2-yard touchdown pass from Beaudreault to Devon Lincoln that tied the game.

On Windham's next possession, Beaudreault found Merritt for a 51-yard screen play that went for a touchdown and gave the Whippets a temporary lead.

Trailing 14-7, Pomperaug scored twice in just over a minute to take the lead in the second quarter.

The Panthers defense shut down the Whippets and a 14-yard punt return by Benjamin Crick put the ball on the Windham 26-yard line. Clements then broke through
the middle for a 19-yard run and then finished off the possession with a 7-yard touchdown run.

On the ensuing kickoff, the ball glanced off Ismael Gutierrez and into the arms of Kevin Siegler at the Windham 39-yard line. The Panther running attack
went right back to work on the legs of freshman Timothy Miller. Miller took the Clements hand off bounced off a few Whippet tacklers and scampered
down the far sideline for a touchdown. It was a consecutive set of plays that highlighted the Panthers opportunistic night.