Seacoast high school football Week 1: How Seacoast teams fared in openers

This weekend signals the start of another football season in the Seacoast with all 10 local teams playing.

Week 1 was headlined by two Friday night games featuring Seacoast teams facing off against each other: Portsmouth/Oyster River at Winnacunnet , and Exeter at Dover .

Winnacunnet beat Portsmouth/Oyster River , 30-20, while Exeter beat Dover , 42-12.

In Friday's other games, Deering beat Marshwood , 35-8, Somersworth lost to Monadnock, 12-7, Keene beat Spaulding, 42-7, Souhegan beat St. Thomas Aquinas , 37-14, and Traip Academy lost to Sacopee Valley, 38-18.

On Saturday, York defeated New Hampshire Division IV program Hillsboro-Deering, 54-14.

York handles Hillsboro-Deering in cross-state matchup

YORK, Maine - York was off and running the moment it stepped on the field for its season opener in Saturday's, 54-14 win over Hillsboro-Deering, a New Hampshire Division IV team.

Class C South York raced out to a 42-0 lead in the first half, and held the Hillcats scoreless until late in the third quarter against York's reserves.

York will host Fryeburg Academy Friday at 6 p.m.

"Next week is going to be tough," York head coach Matt Nelson said. "They're a much different team football team (than Hillsboro-Deering). They're big and strong. It's going to be a big test for us."

Key moments: Behind two touchdown passes from York starting quarterback Peter Martin, two more from his backup Asher Kuhn, two touchdown receptions from Trey Fogg, and two more touchdowns from Jonathan Estes - one a punt return and the other a 40-yard run, the Wildcats shined in all facets of the game.

Mike Hanlon and JJ Luchette each scored a touchdown in the first half for the Wildcats, and Gavin Duffy and Jack Elworthy both caught a touchdown pass.

York forced four punts in the first half, forced a fumble which was recovered by Fogg, and also held the Hillcats to just two first downs in the first half.

Key Moments: Martin connected with Fogg twice in the first quarter, the first on a 10-yard dot in the back of the end zone to put York up 7-0 with 8:24 left in the first. Roughly three minutes later, Fogg scored on a swing pass from 22 yards out.

Estes, playing in his first varsity game, scored on a 50-yard punt return in the first quarter and on a 42-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter. In between Estes' two scores was a 28-yard touchdown run by Hanlon. Luchette scored York's sixth first-half touchdown.

Coach's Comment: "We did exactly what we wanted to do tonight," Nelson said. "We executed well in all phases of the game ... everybody contributed and we did exactly what we planned to do."

-Brandon Brown

Marshwood's messy first half leads to opening loss to Deering

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine – The Marshwood High School football team could not overcome five turnovers in its Class B opener, four of which led to touchdowns in a discouraging 35-8 loss at home to Deering Friday night.

Four of those giveaways came in the first half when the Rams built a 22-0 lead. Deering was led by senior quarterback Tavian Lauture who threw two touchdown passes, ran for a third and kicked a field goal.

Marshwood got on the board 2:56 into the third quarter on quarterback Tyler Hussey’s 63-yard strike to Landon Waterman on the right flat. Waterman outraced several defenders down the sideline for the TD. Ryan Essex dashed in for the two-point conversation to make it 22-8.

Deering added two scores to put the game out of reach. Lauture hit Corbin Burke for a 10-yard TD strike, and after the kickoff went into the end zone, Deering added its final TD. A bad snap to Hussey, bounced toward the end zone where Deering’s Zeke Dewever pounced on it in the end zone for six points.

Coach’s comment: “It seemed like we were playing from behind the whole time,” said coach Alex Rotsko. “It’s tough to play like that and expect to be in the game. It was very sloppy. We have to look at the film and see what happened. It seemed like we were under a lot of pressure trying to throw the ball. There were a couple of things we thought we could take advantage of, but we didn’t have much time back there.”

Key moments: Down 22-0, Marshwood got back into it on Hussey’s 63-yard scoring strike to Waterman. The Hawks got the ball back a few minutes later when Brady Isabelle picked off a Lauture pass, giving his team the ball on their own 30. It was more bad news for the hosts. They were assessed an unsportsmanlike penalty right off the dot and then eventually lost the ball on fourth down when Isabelle received a bad snap and could not punt the ball. He ran with it as best he could, but was tackled on his own 26. It took Deering three plays to put the game out of reach on Lauture’s TD pass to Burke.

In the first half, Deering scored on TD runs by Joey Foley (six yards) and Lauture (seven yards), a 40-yard Lauture field goal, and a 36-yard Lauture scoring pass to Sullivan Toher.

Up next: Marshwood plays at Westbrook next Saturday at 3 p.m.

– Mike Whaley

Somersworth begins new chapter in Division III

SOMERSWORTH – It takes what it takes.

That’s the motto for the Somersworth High School football team this season. The Hilltoppers discovered Friday night that it’s going to take four quarters to win consistently at the Division III level, not two.

Following a first half in which Somersworth gave up two long touchdown runs on defense and did not register a first down on offense, the Hilltoppers hung in there in the second half of an eventual 12-7 loss to Monadnock Regional in their opener.

“That’s our inexperience showing,” Somersworth coach Jeremy Lambert of the slow start. “They came at us right out of the gate. We talked about it all week that it was going to be high intensity, kind of punch you in the mouth football game.”

Coming off three straight Division IV titles, the Hilltoppers returned just four starters on each side of the ball.

“That’s how it goes,” said senior co-captain Thomas Rees. “Moving up a division. Young team. We weren’t expecting perfection.”

Junior quarterback Jackson Dumont, making his first varsity start, scored Somersworth’s only touchdown on a 4-yard sneak with 6:08 remaining in the third quarter. Nate Gray added the extra point to make it 12-7.

Dumont and Gray collaborated on a long pass play and ensuing penalty that covered 69 yards and set up the score. Trailing 12-7 late in the fourth, the Hilltoppers drove deep into Huskies’ territory.

An 11-yard run by Blayne Boulanger, a 12-yard pass completion from Dumont to Thomas Rees and a pass interference penalty gave Somersworth a first down at the Huskies’ 25-yard line with less than a minute left.

However, the Hilltoppers could get no closer and had to turn the ball over on downs with 11 seconds remaining.

“Defensively I was pretty happy,” Lambert said. “We held tough, made some stands. We got a couple takeaways when we really needed them to put us in a position to be competitive and have a chance to win the game.”

Sophomore Liam Hart scored both touchdowns for the visitors on runs of 22 and 39 yards in the first half. Both conversion attempts failed, and Somersworth trailed 12-0 at the break.

“Overall, it wasn’t bad,” Lambert said. “Offensively we struggled. We gave up those two broken plays that turned into long touchdowns, but we kind of settled down at halftime and we came back and responded, which is all we can ask from our young guys. We made some mistakes and you can’t recover in a competitive division if you make too many mistakes.”

-Al Pike

New era in Spaulding football begins with loss

KEENE - The Red Raiders didn't pick up a first down until midway through the fourth quarter, and started the Dan Hodsdon Era with a 42-7 loss at Keene.

"I am definitely surprised with the result," said Dan Hodsdon after his first game as Spaulding's head coach. "Not happy with the level of effort or execution; unacceptable. I am certainly not giving any excuses. We weren't ready to play, and that's my fault. Hopefully, we fix things before next week."

Keene jumped out to a 42-0 lead at halftime, and maintained that advantage until Spaulding's Tyler Lindsay scored from 24 yards out.

"(Keene) was able to do whatever they wanted," Hodsdon said. "They threw the ball on us, they ran the ball on us. We had a hard time stopping everything they did."

Hodsdon was proud of some of his players in the second half.

"Some of the younger guys stepped up in the second half and stopped the bleeding a little bith on both sides of the ball," Hodsdon said. "Some of the younger guys certainly earned some more playing time."

Spaulding will host Winnacunnet next Friday.

-Jay Pinsonnault

Saints open with loss at Souhegan

AMHERST - The Saints quickly dug themselves a 10-point hole early in the first quarter, fell behind 23-0 at halftime and couldn't recover, falling to Souhegan, 37-4 in a Division II game.

"We played a very good football team," St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Ed McDonough said. "We were unable to match their speed and intensity. It's only one game, we'll get better."

Dillon Lassard scored both of St. Thomas' touchdowns, the first on a 15-yard run, the second on a 34-yard jaunt.

St. Thomas Aquinas will visit Pembroke next Saturday.

-Jay Pinsonnault

Traip Academy opens with loss at Sacopee Valley

HIRAM, Maine - Traip Academy junior quarterback Max Jordan had three touchdown passes, but the Rangers opened its Maine 8-Man Small South season with a 38-18 loss at Sacopee Valley.

"We had a hard time stopping (quarterback Tyler) Easterbrook," Traip Academy head coach Eric Lane.

Phin Fifield, Colin O'Loughlin and Seamus Berry all had a receiving touchdown for the Rangers. Ben Martine starred defensively with 11 tackles and two sacks.

Traip Academy will host Telstar Regional next Saturday.

-Jay Pinsonnault

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seacoast high school football Week 1: How Seacoast teams fared in openers