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.

In the 2008 New Hampshire high school football season every team received at least one game against an opponent not in its own division, whether that division be higher or lower. Most, if not all of these matchups, are intriguing, and none more so than Friday night's game between the Souhegan Sabers and the Laconia Sachems in Laconia.

Both teams have started quick out of the gates, muscling through the first two games of the season without many struggles. Each will enter Friday's game undefeated. However, one team will go home from Friday's game with that familiar empty feeling that comes naturally from the impact of losing, especially with expectations from two teams as solid as these two.

The most interesting thing about this out-of-division matchup is this is not the first meeting between Souhegan and Laconia. These teams were formerly in the same division before division shifts after the 2003 season moved Laconia to Division IV. While in Division III, Souhegan and Laconia played fierce rivalries, some matching the intensity and passion displayed on a regular basis between Souhegan and Plymouth. The once-impressive rivalry reached a climax during the 2002 playoffs between these two teams, in which Souhegan won decisively but had some controversy between the two head coaches. This only caused to fuel the fire for this revisited rivalry.  

When Friday night rolls around, the lights in Laconia are turned on and the fans file in, the rivalry will be renewed.  Though there are no playoff implications coming from this game, the atmosphere during this week of practice felt like we were preparing for the state championship in September, and the atmosphere on the game field will match that. With fresh players on both teams and fresh mindsets, every player involved will have their very own chance to write a chapter in this historic and once-forgotten rivalry.