New London — Were there halftime adjustments?

Most certainly.

But New London football coach Johnny Burns said the Whalers made "more of a commitment" to control the line of scrimmage — especially on offense — in the second half of Saturday's game against Harding at Cannamela Field.

Mission accomplished.

New London put together three impressive offensive drives, two which resulted in touchdowns, as the Whalers pulled away for a 26-14 victory over the Presidents.

"I'm proud of the way we competed," said Burns after New London, coming off its second (and final) bye week of the season, improved to 2-2. "But there's also a lot for us to continue to learn ... and that's a good thing."

New London, which led 13-0 at halftime, began the second half with a methodical drive before fumbling the ball away after driving to the Harding 22.

The Presidents made the Whalers pay, too, going 65 yards and scoring with 4:21 left in the third quarter when quarterback Nazjar Curry called his own number and scored on a 15-yard sprint to pull Harding to within five, 13-8, after Keyon Dawkins ran for the conversion.

New London's response?

Quarterback Frankie Pratts took the Whalers on a 14-play, 77-yard drive that lasted 7 minutes, 12 seconds. It ended with Jaylen Callender taking a swing pass from Pratts, bouncing off a hit just inside the Harding 10, then driving into the pylon for a touchdown that made it 19-8 with 9:09 left in the game.

"It was good to see (the offense) deal with the adversity," Burns said. "We had the fumble, and they made us pay for it. They scored, and then we responded.

"It was great to see them put it together. Today was another step in us evolving offensively. There's a lot of takeaways that we feel we can build upon, for sure."

Harding's next drive ended when Curry was hit just as he released a long pass that Charles Ziegler intercepted at the New London 2 and returned 43 yards.

Two plays later, Pratts took off on an option play and went 40 yards for a touchdown (Edwin Rivera kicked the extra point), and the Whalers put this one out of reach, opening a 26-8 lead with only 3:45 left.

"It was fantastic to watch the offense do their thing," New London inside linebacker Keeano Gonzalez said. "We always knew that they could do that, and they finally showed that on field today."

Gonzalez was a stabilizing force for the defense, which faced the task of trying to contain the dangerous run-pass capability of Curry. Curry did score a pair of TDs, including a two-yard sneak late in the game, but the Whalers also sacked him four times (two by Joseph Lucas) and picked him off twice, the first coming when Donovan Jeffcoat intercepted a pass in the end zone that was first tipped by fellow defensive back Erick McNeil.

"We had great energy today," Gonzalez said. "We had really good pressure and really good containment on (Curry)."

Curry rushed for 106 yards on 18 carries, but 67 of those yards came on two carries. He also completed 7 of 11 passes for just 40 yards.

"As coaches, we're still somewhat naïve and gullible," Burns said. "We say, 'Hey, we're going to do this and it's going to stop (Curry). But at same time, if we get into situations where we bend, that's fine. We just can't break, and I'd say we got that right about half the time."

Pratts completed 7 of 10 passes for 151 yards, including a swing pass that Callender turned into a 92-yard touchdown with 7:22 left in the first half (he picked up a great downfield block from Clayton Smith).

Callender rushed for 80 yards and 10 carries and Josiah Williams had 79 yards on 12 carries, including a 38-yard sprint for New London's first score of the day.

c.banning@theday.com