Editor's Note: Ben Stallman is a senior at Souhegan High School and a wide receiver/defensive back on the SHS football team. He entered the 2008 season with 60 career receptions, which is a school record. He also set the school record for receptions in a season when he caught 35 passes last year. Ben was named to the Division III All-State First Team following the 2007 season. His Varsity Insider column will appear each week throughout the season.

As another year of Souhegan High School football in New Hampshire approaches, it appears to be another normal season filled with highs, lows, defeats and triumphs for the Sabers as every team encounters. However, as the games get underway, a valuable piece of Souhegan history will be missing from the 2008 season.

Since Souhegan joined Division III football years ago, it annually battled Plymouth Regional High School. However, this year Plymouth dropped down to Division IV, leaving an empty slot on Souhegan's schedule. Each year, no matter whether the score was a blowout or a tight contest, the rivalry embodied everything one could expect from a great rivalry as blood, sweat, and tears poured out of each and every body that stepped on the playing field that night. Even if they played only one play, that player left the contest with the understanding of what a rivalry was meant to be, and how it was meant to be played, with pride for yourself and your teammates and respect for your opponent. You honored everything the Souhegan-Plymouth rivalry meant to each town, and every player tried their hardest to carry on the tradition each year.

Though in recent memory Souhegan has not had the best track record against Plymouth, every game feels like a battle till the last seconds tick off the scoreboard, and the buzz of the stadium lights are no longer heard. Even with such losses as a devastating one to Plymouth in the state finals last year, or the 11-9 last-second free-kick defeat, the game is always boiling with competitive blood. Even as I stared blankly at the scoreboard following that close defeat, seeing my teammates laying face down on the field in disbelief of what had happened, I still appreciated that I had been a part in one of the greatest chapters of the Souhegan-Plymouth rivalry.

Souhegan has triumphed in the past though, with a stunning defeat of Plymouth in the 2004 regular season, paving the way for an eventual state championship that year. Every year this rivalry surpasses the previous in greatness, and every year the rivalry games are never alike, bringing something unique to the table each time, and in my opinion there is nothing like it. There is nothing like the rush I get from stepping on to the "Land of Lenahan" field, knowing each time I did it brought about the hope of victory against the toughest of opponents. I do not know if I will ever experience another rivalry like Souhegan-Plymouth, but I hope last year's state championship game is not the last chapter in this storied rivalry.