BY RYAN O'CONNOR

Receiving second life and a fresh set of downs at the opponent’s 7-yard line, John Stark looked poised to move ahead 9-0 in the Oct. 13 fooball contest and put the visiting foes in an early hole.

But the ensuing events mirrored the season; the Generals ran toward success, then fumbled the chance.

Stark, after obtaining a first-and-goal on a roughing call, turned over the ball, providing Pembroke Academy a second red zone turnover in as many quarters.

The next play, PA tailback Justin Muniz sliced through the John Stark front seven, blew past its secondary and scored on a 92-yard run.

In the first quarter, Stark was stopped four times inside the Pembroke 10, including twice at the goal line.

 “Unfortunately, you know, inside the 10(-yard line) two times in the first half, to come away with no points, well … We don’t deserve to win the game,” said head coach Bill Raycraft of the 14-10 setback.

And though their offense stalled twice on long first-half drives, the Generals proved in the third quarter they could, in fact, find pay dirt, marching 92 yards – including 43 rushing yards from Charlie Bouchard – on nine plays, capped by a 4-yard end zone plunge from running back Ryan Therrian.

The 10-7 lead was short-lived.

Pembroke answered with a 49-yard broken-play touchdown from quarterback John Natalizio, who mishandled the initial snap before keeping the ball and rumbling into the end zone.

Late in the fourth quarter, three plays removed from a 24-yard Therrian scamper, Stark faced a fourth-and-four from the PA 42-yard line. But a holding penalty and an overthrown pass sealed the locals’ fourth home loss in as many games this season.

“I’m going to call Souhegan and see if we can get a Friday night game under the lights down there,” Raycraft joked of his team’s final home contest against the D-III power. “We don’t have any home field advantage this year. For some reason, whether it’s less pressure or the idea of going into someone else’s house and beating them, I don’t know.”

The Generals turned the ball over four times in the contest and fell below .500 to a 3-4 record.

Raycraft said the loss likely sealed Stark’s absence from the postseason.

“They’re hurting,” said Raycraft of his team’s psyche. “We knew we had to win this game and next week to make the playoffs, so they knew this was a playoff game. To them it’s a season-ending loss, but I told them we’ve got two games left, and winning five would be a winning record. So we’ve got to get back to work on Monday.”