White River Junction
The one he came up with happened just in the nick of time.
Tucker and the Hartford secondary collected two interceptions and a fumble in a 18-14 win over MMU, holding shifty Cougars quarterback Asa Carlson at bay while withstanding a late 14-point surge by the visitors.
The win gave Hartford a 5-2 record with one game remaining in the regular season, setting the Canes up in prime position in the VPA Division I standings.
“Going into the season, we didn’t even know who was going to start (in the secondary),” Tucker said. “It’s crazy how far we’ve come. … I think we’ve learned from our experience, me especially. I think we put a lot of work in, in practice. We’re improving a lot.”
Zach Burek scored three touchdowns — two on the ground and one in the air — for Hartford and led the team with 22 rushes and 152 yards. Tucker, playing a heavy workload with star running back Nick Porter sidelined with an ankle injury, ran 19 times for 113 yards for the Hurricanes. Reece Thompson added 11 carries for 23 yards.
Freshman cornerback Brandon Potter started for Porter on defense and made a lasting impression in his varsity debut.
“We had to start a freshman at corner on defense, which I don’t think we’ve ever done in the 20 years that I’ve been here,” Hartford head coach Matt Trombly said. “He played like a junior, senior tonight. … Came up, wasn’t afraid, played 100 miles an hour. So proud of him.”
Added Tucker: “He’s our third-string cornerback, and he did a great job for us. That was huge.”
Hartford built a 12-0 lead at halftime with an assist from its defense.
MMU’s first play from scrimmage resulted in a fumble by Carlson, which was recovered by Hartford sophomore Alex Bushway. The Canes scored five plays later, Burek rumbling up the middle from 4 yards out. A failed two-point conversion resulted in a 6-0 lead for Hartford just 2 minutes, 37 seconds into the game; the Canes missed all three of their two-point conversion attempts on the night.
The Cougars answered with five more plays before turning the ball over again on a Thompson interception of Carlson. The MMU quarterback, a senior, finished the game 12-for-23 for 98 yards, with two interceptions and a fumble.
“You know, for us, we didn’t play four quarters,” Carlson said. “We showed up for the fourth quarter, but that didn’t show up on the scoreboard.
“We were missing blocks, not making the right reads,” he added. “We need to just execute better. We had the heart; we just didn’t execute well enough.”
Hartford scored again with 0.8 seconds remaining in the first half, quarterback Cole Jasmin finding Burek with a pass from 4 yards out. MMU managed 25 plays on five drives in the first half, resulting in three punts and two turnovers.
The Hurricanes scored again with 3:44 left in the third quarter, a 2-yard run up the middle by Burek for his third score of the game. Hartford led, 18-0, with seven minutes remaining in the fourth before Carlson and the Cougars found some life, scoring 14 points in 2:37 to cut the deficit to four points.
MMU’s first touchdown was a miscue by the Canes, a high snap on a punt attempt that sailed over punter Nick Cameron’s head and into the end zone. The Cougars recovered.
Then an onside kick by MMU was recovered by the Cougars’ Matthew Wixson. Carlson completed five passes on the next drive for 56 yards, eventually finding Harrison Leombruno-Nicholson for a 17-yard strike in the end zone with 4:05 remaining.
The Cougars got the ball back again with 3:20 remaining on their own 28-yard line. But Tucker intercepted Carlson’s second pass of the drive, allowing Hartford to run out the clock. MMU got the ball back one last time with 34.3 seconds left, but back-to-back Carlson incompletions ended the game.
“Frustrated, ready to go back to work,” Carlson said. “We’re better than that. We could have won this game. We’ll be back.”
Hartford’s secondary had been burned by mobile quarterbacks earlier this season — it allowed 361 passing yards to St. Johnsbury QB Jake Cady in a 35-33 win in Week 1, and then 90 passing yards and 89 rushing yards to Rutland QB Ryan Moore in a 21-13 loss in Week 4. Trombly said the group seems to be coming together at the right time.
“We’re getting there,” Trombly said. “Right now, with us, we have no depth. We’re just trying to stay healthy. We knew this was going to be a battle. We didn’t have everybody, and the guys we did have weren’t 100 percent, so it was going to be a collective effort.”
The Canes conclude the regular season on Friday night at Essex.
Notes: Porter was on the Hartford sideline in crutches on Friday, still nursing a right ankle injury suffered last week against Brattleboro. Trombly said Porter’s status is week-to-week, but the team remains cautious about using him too early with the playoffs looming. Porter has 725 rushing yards and six touchdowns for the Canes this season. … Hartford placekicker Kobe Peach also missed Friday’s game with an illness. … Seniors Porter, Tucker, Thompson, Cameron, Riley Packard, Max Pfeiffer and Colton Schaal were honored before the game for senior night.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.