text: There were a lot of surprises at Dover High School's Dunaway Field on Thursday, none bigger than the final score: Dover 28, Portsmouth 6.
  Were there those who gave Dover a chance to upset Portsmouth? Sure, but Dover prevailing by three touchdowns seemed as unlikely as the turkey winning a battle against the carving knife.
  Dover (4-6 overall, 3-5 in Division II) set the tone from its opening drive, when it moved the ball 98 yards on seven plays and took a 7-0 lead. It was 21-0 at halftime and 28-0 early in the fourth quarter.
  "We just started out slow and couldn't recover," Portsmouth quarterback Nate Jones said. "They had good pressure on me the whole game, pretty much, and they had guys downfield with each receiver as well."
  Jones threw for 2,118 yards and 25 touchdowns in Portsmouth's first 11 games, but was held to 95 yards passing against Dover. He completed 14 of 38 pass attempts and was intercepted three times.
  It was only the second game in which Portsmouth didn't throw a touchdown pass this season. The first was a 49-6 loss to Souhegan when both Jones and quarterback Quinn McCann were out with injuries.
  Portsmouth (9-3 overall, 9-2 in Division II) didn't pick up its initial first down until 3:38 remained in the first half.
  "They knew what our weapons were and they did a great job taking away our weapons," Portsmouth coach Bill Murphy said. "Maybe we were a little stale. I don't think emotion-wise we were where we'd like to be after losing the (Division III) championship game, but I think an awful lot of credit goes to (Dover). Their kids played very, very hard."
  Portsmouth's Mike Montville was the busiest player on the field, but most of his contribution came as a punter.
  Montville, who had made 60 receptions for 1,077 yards and 16 TDs entering Thursday's game, caught four passes for 25 yards. He punted six times.
  "What I said to (defensive coordinator) Jim Dunn was this, 'Because of injuries and missed assignments last Thanksgiving, Montville hurt us," Dover coach Ken Osbon said. "He was running free wide open. Whatever we do defensively let's start by taking him out of the game if we can.'
  "The first thing we wanted to do was disrupt the rhythm between Jones and Montville. That's where it started."
  Although Dover struggled to run the ball against Division II competition this season, running back Justin Dube was the best player on the field. Dube, who missed four regular-season games because of a concussion, carried the ball 33 times for 181 yards. He scored all four Dover touchdowns.
  "It was his turn to carry the load," Osbon said. "As he started to carry it we just kept coming back to him. He rose to the challenge and did a great job."
  "We had a great season," Murphy said. "You always want to finish with a win, and we weren't able to do that.
  "They were a little stronger than us perhaps, and that should be incentive for some of our kids to get into the weights a little bit more than they have in the past.
  Roger Brown publishes the New Hampshire Football Report, which can be found at www.nhfootballreport.com.
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