RallyNorth.net

PELHAM, N.H. | For all its explosiveness and flash, the 2007 Pelham High football team will meander into the history books forever thanks to 48 minutes of plain old, nasty, gritty, helmet-smacking defense.

PELHAM | Tom Babaian wasn't around for Pelham High's "Powder Blue" varsity football premiere way back on Labor Day weekend in 1993 | a 36-0 loss at Kennett Regional in which the first-year Pythons couldn't muster a single first down.

Courageous, bordering on crazy.

How else could you describe Pelham High senior Jamie Vaiknoras picking up the school’s flag and doing a victory lap on the Harris Track | right through the Gilford sideline | as time wound down in the Pythons’ 21-7 state championship win?

Fourth-and-goal from the one-foot line, championship hanging in the balance. The linebacker reads the play, attacks the hole, soars through the air, meets the halfback head-to-head and drives him back for no gain.

PELHAM, N.H. | Sluggish and apprehensive just weren't getting it done.

Top-seeded and unbeaten Pelham High was watching what many thought was a formality of a Division 5 semifinal turn into a competition right before its eyes.

PELHAM, N.H. | The Gilford Eagles gave Bruce Vieira

reverence fitting only the Almighty. Hushed voices from the Gilford sideline could be heard saying, "There He goes," and "Watch him, He's going out."

Heading into the biggest weekend of the regular season at a perfect 8-0, they are pounding the opposition by 39.6 points a game.

No, we're not talking about the New England Patriots. Their winning margin is a mere 25.5 points a game.

Bruce Vieira gained 163 yards and scored a second-quarter touchdown, leading undefeated (8-0) Pelham to a 28-12 win, at Newport.

Cameron Robidoux opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 2-yard run. In the third quarter, Joe DeAngelo added a 5-yard run and Mike Lombard concluded the scoring with a 15-yard interception return in the fourth. The Pythons return home Friday for a 7 p.m. meeting with Gilford.

Pelham junior Bruce Vieira found the end zone five times, helping Pelham pound Farmington 58-0 in a game that was postponed twice over the weekend due to rain and field conditions.

Vieira's first touchdown was a 43-yard punt return that was nearly called back when an unsportsmanlike conduct flag was thrown against one of his blockers. Fortunately for Vieira and the Pythons, a Farmington player retaliated and the penalties negated one another.

An honors student, Dan Trainor is more than capable of doing the math.

"Unless we win out, we're not going to make the tournament," said the senior captain of the Pelham boys soccer team. But that does not mean that Trainor is not going to get a taste of the postseason this fall. Take the helmet and shoulder pads off the masked man doing the kicking chores for the hottest team in Division 5, the Pelham Pythons, and you'll uncover the same guy who has been a four-year fixture on the soccer field for Pelham.