The last time Bow met Hanover on a football field, they did it in a place the Falcons had never been before – the playoffs.
That was way back in 2002 and Hanover, the eventual champs, rolled to a 28-0 win in the Division IV semifinals. The two teams will meet again Saturday, this time in a D-II semifinal as No. 7 Bow (8-2) travels to No. 3 Hanover (9-1) for a 1 p.m. kickoff. The Falcons have plenty of playoff experience now (their current group of seniors has been to four straight postseasons), but they’re still trying to get somewhere they’ve never been – the University of New Hampshire and Wildcat Stadium, the site of the state finals.
“This group has done a great job all year of not looking ahead, but obviously at this juncture, if we win we get to play in a huge college stadium etc., etc., and that’s weighing on them. They’re adolescent athletes,” Bow Coach Paul Cohen said. “But I also think they’ve learned to stay the course and not get bedazzled by the thought of playing in a college stadium and not look past what we have coming up first.”
It would be hard to overlook the Marauders. They have impressive size on both lines, highlighted by 330-pound senior Schuyler Cyrus. They have a pair of talented backs in Caleb Putnam (653 rushing yards this year) and Alex Mosenthal (687 rushing yards) and they like to use them. Last week, Hanover had 49 rushes and just six pass attempts in its 13-10 quarterfinal win over rival Lebanon.
“Defensively, we need to stop the run, there’s no question about that,” Cohen said. “Their quarterback (Connor Stafford, 38-for-80, 757 yards, eight touchdowns, no interceptions) has a good arm and can throw on the run, so we’ll need to make sure our coverage guys are playing like velcro.”
The key to the game may be how Bow’s defensive line holds up against Hanover’s ground-and-pound attack. Senior Nate Alford (69 tackles, five sacks) has been a force at defensive end, and he’ll need to be at his best, along with fellow linemen Alex Berube, a senior captain, and his younger brother, Andrew Berube, a freshman who has stared both ways all year for Bow.
Linebackers Duke Biehl and Thomas MacEachron will also be called on to stop Hanover’s run game. As for the coverage guys, junior Matt Scanlon moved from safety to corner halfway through the season and, “has had an almost meteoric rise in his capacity to cover people,” Cohen said. Scanlon showed that last week as he picked off a pair of passes in Bow’s 27-21 quarterfinal upset win over No. 2 John Stark.
That win also showcased an offensive trait that could help the Falcons on Saturday – diversity. Quarterback Matt Harkins threw for two touchdowns, Justin Mooney ran for another and Jack Corriveau, Bow’s leading rusher, returned a blocked punt for a score.
Harkins, a 6-foot-1 junior, is 72-for-117 for 890 yards with eight touchdowns and seven interceptions this season. His primary target has been Alford (38 catches, 528 yards), but the Falcons have other capable receivers in Mac Kimball, Justin Porath and Corriveau, and Harkins has the ability to improvise as needed.
“Harkins is a very good student of the game,” Cohen said. “He spends a lot of time in film study, so he’s picking up on things on the field and he has a little leeway in that regard to audible if he sees something, and often he’s been right, which certainly helps.”
That ability to change calls at the line is a great weapon to have, especially when teams have to respect the running abilities of Corriveau (122 carries, 710 yards) and Mooney (102 carries, 582 yards).
Bow has thrown the ball more this season than in recent years, in part because Harkins has the talent to do it, but also because the Falcons moved up from Division III to Division II, where teams are more sophisticated and can’t always be beaten with a one-dimensional attack. The move has presented new challenges for Bow (which won the D-III title in 2013 and reached the semifinals in 2014 and 2015), but so far the team has responded.
“I think we’ve shown that not only can we play at this level, we can succeed,” Cohen said.
Bow’s four playoff teams over the last four years have taken various shapes, but there is a common thread.
“The common denominator for all four of these teams is that there’s been a certain chemistry that’s allowed them to remain hungry well into the latter stages of the season,” Cohen said. “When some teams are looking forward to next year, these kids are not. This group has been able to stay focused on what is right in front of them.”
If they can focus and find a way to win, the Falcons will face the winner of the No. 4 Plymouth at No. 1 Windham semifinal in the D-II championship game on Nov. 19 at that bedazzling college stadium.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)