: NH High School FootballEastward ho! NH teams face cross-border clashes
Sep. 2—MERRIMACK HIGH will kick off its season tonight with a game at Bonny Eagle of Standish, Maine. Maine newspapers are calling this the first regular-season game between high school teams from New Hampshire and Maine in the "modern era" of Maine football.
Bonny Eagle has won seven Class A championships under current head coach Kevin Cooper.
"It seemed like it would be a great challenge to play one of the Maine teams, and of course we got Bonny Eagle, which is one of the better programs in the state," Merrimack coach Kip Jackson said. "The logistics of driving to Maine on Labor Day weekend is a whole other challenge."
There will be four other matchups that feature a New Hampshire team against a Maine opponent this season. Those games were born out of necessity on each side of the border.
When New Hampshire found itself with 21 teams in Division I (most expected 20), it made scheduling difficult. The solution included a schedule with a bye week for each Division I team. Many teams that wanted to play a game during their bye week had to look long and hard to find an opponent, however.
"I'm happy with the net result," Jackson said. "I wasn't exactly happy about changing the alignment and everything else."
Maine has been dealing with a competitive imbalance in Class A, its division for schools with the largest enrollments. Since moving away from three divisions, Class A has shrunk from 16 to eight teams and some of those teams have not been competitive with the others. Some Maine teams were looking for a game against a strong opponent, while others were looking to avoid playing another non-competitive contest against a top team in its division.
Take Edward Little of Auburn, for example. The Red Eddies haven't won a game since the 2018 season, so instead of taking on a powerhouse like Thornton Academy, Edward Little scheduled a game against Spaulding, which failed to win a game last season. Thornton Academy filled the void in its schedule by agreeing to play Bedford.
The other Maine/New Hampshire matchups are Dover vs. Sanford and Portsmouth/Oyster River vs. Oxford Hills.
The games will count in Maine's Crabtree Standings, the formula used to select and seed playoff teams, but will not count toward an NHIAA team's point rating. In New Hampshire, the outcome will come into play only if needed to settle a tie for a tournament position.
Jackson said he expects Merrimack to play Bonny Eagle again next season, but It's unclear if all of the Maine-New Hampshire matchups will extend beyond this year since Maine is scheduled to reclassify after this season.
"I just think it's a great experience for the kids to not only be able to play a team from a different state, but also to travel like this," Jackson said. "Sounds like it's going to benefit some of the upper-echelon teams in Maine just because they were having a hard time getting challenging games, so if this helps football we're all for it. I think any coach would say that."
No Division I team will have more experience in the offensive backfield this season than Pinkerton Academy, which returns senior running backs Cole Yennaco and Jacob Albert, both of whom have been starters since they were freshmen.
Albert missed much of last season with a groin injury, but rushed for 465 yards and four touchdowns in three games before he was sidelined. Yennaco ran for 996 yards and 16 touchdowns on 110 attempts as a junior (8.8 yards per carry).
Caden Michaud, who replaced Albert in the backfield after Albert was hurt last year, is also back. Michaud, a junior, gained 282 yards on 19 carries last season, when he also caught six passes for 225 yards.
All three are impact players on defense as well, Michaud and Albert in the defensive backfield and Yennaco at linebacker.
Yennaco, a catcher, and Albert, who plays center field, helped Pinkerton win the Division I baseball championship last spring for the first time since 1986. Both players have committed to continue their baseball careers at Division I Merrimack College.
Pinkerton will open its season at Windham on Saturday (2 p.m.).
Paul Silva has said for years that he expected Josh Duford to replace him as the varsity football coach at Stevens. The question was when?
The answer turned out to be this year, as Silva stepped down in the offseason and Duford was elevated from assistant to head coach. Silva, 62, served as Stevens' head coach for 11 seasons and will remain on staff as the team's defensive coordinator. Silva resigned as the school's varsity baseball coach before the 2022 season.
Duford, 32, graduated from Stevens in 2008 and then played at Curry College and Plymouth State. He joined the Stevens' staff as a volunteer assistant coach once he got out of college and worked his way up to a full-time assistant. He was on staff when Stevens won the Division III championship in 2016 and finished as the Division III runner-up in 2020.
Duford was the offensive coordinator at Lebanon in 2017, but returned to Stevens the following season. He will begin his head coaching career with a game at Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough on Saturday.
Division IV teams won't begin their regular season until next weekend. Division IV teams will play seven games against NHIAA competition, and have a bye between Week 6 and Week 7. Instead of taking the bye, Newport will face Mill River of Clarendon, Vt., that weekend.
Next weekend's Division IV schedule: Newfound at Somersworth, Winnisquam at Bishop Brady, Raymond at Franklin and Mascoma Valley at Newport. Farmington/Nute, which competed in Division IV, no longer has a program.
There's one game on this weekend's schedule that features two teams in the Union Leader Power Poll. No. 4 Nashua North will be at home against No. 6 Bedford tonight.
It will be the head coaching debut for North's Chad Zibolis, a former assistant with the program who replaced Dante Laurendi in the offseason. Laurendi guided North to the 2020 Division I championship.
The Power Poll will run each Tuesday throughout the season.
All Bedford games (home and away) can be heard on WBNH 105.1 FM this season. With the exception of road contests at Thornton Academy (Saco, Maine) and at Keene, Bedford games can also be seen on Bedford Community Television. Harry Kozlowski and Corey Munsterteiger will call the action.
