Varsity Insider: Seeds being planted
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 the final regular-season weekend approaches in Division III this year, the seeds are far from locked up, though there is a general outlook as of now. Last week, with a tough victory over a solid Con-Val program, 35-21, Souhegan of Amherst clinched the No. 1 seed for the playoffs, and home-field advantage throughout.
Souhegan has played supurb defense throughout the season, though Con-Val managed to find a few holes in the defense for some points. Souhegan uses a sustained ground attack with a handful of running backs to get the job done. Also mixing in what can be an explosive pass game is a major way that the Sabers have kept teams off balance.
Though the No. 1 seed is locked up, the two and three seeds are completely up for grabs, and that will also be decided this weekend in a head-to-head matchup of the Milford Spartans and Portsmouth Clippers. Both teams enter this contest with 6-1 records in the division and both also have locked up playoff spots. They will play each other in back to back weeks, and the winner of this game will get that semifinal game at home next weekend. At any given point, the offenses of these two teams can be dynamic, or can struggle, but both have found ways to put up many points in most games week after week. Portsmouth was one of the few teams to give Souhegan trouble, staging a second-half comeback to make the score extremely close, though both Milford and Portsmouth are concentrating on beating each other for now.
The fourth and final seed in Division III has boiled down to one game and yet again another head-to-head contest. The Goffstown Grizzlies will face off against the Con-Val Cougars this Saturday in what is sure to be a passionate and heated game. Goffstown came out of the gate slow, suffering some tough losses, though as of late the Grizzlies have picked up the slack and have been playing a hard, grind-it-out style of football, hanging tight with Portsmouth and pulling out some key wins. Con-Val comes into the game having played a solid season, playing Souhegan, Milford, and Portsmouth all tough and having a lot of confidence going into the contest.
The winner of this game will face Souhegan next Saturday, while the loser begins to focus on the basketball season. Either way, this game is too close to call and should be an exciting day in Peterborough, and all across the state, as division seedings and battles for those last playoff spots rage on.
