ELITE EIGHT
These players stood out from the crowd in Week 6 action
There were many standout players across the gridiron in Week 6 across the Seacoast with all 10 local teams in action.
These standout athletes include Portsmouth/Oyster River’s Cam Worster, Winnacunnet’s Jake Magri, Dover’s Bryce Carberry, St. Thomas Aquinas’ Michael Skowron, Marshwood’s Ryan Essex, Spaulding’s Hunter Trueman, and Somersworth’s Tayshawn Sheppard and Seth Worrell.
Let’s take a further look at these eight players and what they did in this weekend’s games.
Cam Worster leads a strong Portsmouth defensive line performance in win over Exeter
To beat Exeter, the two areas an opponent must find success in go hand-inhand - winning the battle in the trenches, and stopping the run. On Friday night, the Portsmouth/Oyster River defensive line was able to accomplish both, led by senior lineman Cam Worster.
Worster was in the backfield early and often for the ClipperCats in their 20-6 win at Tom Daubney Field.
Worster was in on two tackles on Exeter’s opening drive, and the second tackle was the first of many big plays by Worster and the defense. On thirdand-11, Worster chased down and sacked Exeter quarterback Jack Bove for a loss of nine yards, pushing the sticks back to a fourth-and-20 and forcing an Exeter punt.
On Exeter’s second drive, it was again Worster, with the help of Angus Moss, combining for the tackle of Exeter’s Evan Delorie for just a 2-yard gain on third-and-8, forcing a second Exeter punt early in the second quarter.
“Not one person can do it,” Worster said, crediting his teammates as well. “We need the whole defensive line, linebackers, safeties and corners working together for this one. It was definitely a team win.”
Portsmouth held Exeter to just 29 rushing yards on 14 attempts in the first half, and just 60 yards on 28 attempts for the game.
“It feels good, because before this, we only really had Spaulding as the only real power-run team we played,” Worster said. “So this is another big
test on how our run defense can hold up, and we did a really good job today.”
Magri - Winnacunnet's three-phase specialist
HAMPTON – There aren’t too many high school football players who contribute in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams.
But Ryan Francoeur and Winnacunnet has one such player in senior captain Jake Magri.
Magri can catch passes from his tight end position, leads the team in tackles from his linebacker spot, and is the team’s punter, often flipping the field with high booming kicks that pin opponents deep in their own territory. He had a season-high 16 tackles in last week’s loss at out-of-state Bangor, Maine.
“He’s all over the place,” Francoeur said. “He’s a captain, and a leader. He’s been playing hard all year, He’s really stepping up in a big way. You want your team to do well in all three phases, so when one individual kid, especially one who’s out there being gassed a lot and is still able to contribute in all phases, it’s big. But he doesn’t surprise us, that’s why we have Jake in those spots.”
Magri had three catches for 65 yards in Friday’s 28-14 win over Goffstown, Winnacunnet’s first victory of the season. No catch was bigger than his 32yard touchdown from Riley McDaniel which gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead in the opening minute of the second quarter.
He later had a catch for 20 yards, and his third was a 13-yard third-down grab that gave WHS a first down at the Goffstown 15. Two plays later McDaniel ran in from the 4, giving the Warriors a 28-0 lead.
Magri, who was an all-state selection as a punter last year, punted three times on Friday, twice over 45 yards, and another one for 37 yards.
“He feels the situation pretty well,” Francoeur said. “He knows when he has to get It off quickly and when he has more time to really boom it. I think that is his best quality; knowing what type of punt he has to do in terms of the timing of situation, making sure we don’t get blocked, and giving us good field position.”
Dover's Carberry displays leadership on and off the field
DOVER – On a night where the Dover High School football team had four senior starters out with injury, Bryce Carberry’s leadership was just as important as his five catches for 70 yards in Friday’s 42-10 loss to Bedford.
Dover moved the ball well between the 20’s all night against the reigning Division I champions, and the Green Wave’s most successful drives came when they integrated Carberry, Amari Lewis and Brady McInnes in the quick, short passing game.
“We always talk about those short throws being like extended handoffs,” Dover head coach Erica Cumba said. “When we’re on time they really make us click. Ryder (Aubin) thrives in those play-calling sequences. (Carberry) is a great receiver. He’s a three-year receiver and when he has the ball in his hands he makes good things happen.”
Although Carberry wasn’t able to hit paydirt on Friday night, his steady presence and measured leadership were on full display.
“I love getting the ball, doing what I do and I love helping others,” Carberry said. “When I don’t have the ball I am making blocks and trying to help other people get open. I love contributing to this team however I can.
“It’s my senior year and we have a really special group here, so I know we can do something,” Carberry said. “I know that score should have been closer, but hopefully now we can do something special this year.”
Carberry wants to be a mentor to his younger teammates, and he had to do just that on Friday, as injuries forced the Green Wave to play some younger wide receivers along with him.
“I always try to help when I can,” he said. “I try to know every position to my best. Whenever the younger guys ask a question I’m always there, always telling them what to do, and I hope it helps. If they’re confident, I’m confident.”
Cumba said Carberry has been an important leader as one of the team’s captains, this season, and that leadership was evident Friday.
“Bryce has grown a ton this year,” he said. “He does a great job being a voice on the field as well as off the field. He’s an extension of the rest of the team and the coaching staff as a whole. You can see he wants to be able to debrief what’s going on and ask, ‘where can I help make things better?’”
On Friday night he made things better when Aubuin was scrambling. On multiple occasions Carberry broke back toward his quarterback to present himself as an option in the passing game when Aubin was on the run, including a key 16-yard reception on Dover’s opening touchdown drive.
“Those two (Carberry and Aubin), having played together as long as they have, understand each other really well and know each other well enough that they trust what the end result is going to be,” Cumba said.
Carberry was happy to make an impact Friday, but wished the team could have cleaned up some mistakes they made that put them in a hole.
“Our preparation was there,” Carberry said. “We were all prepared and knew what we had to do. It was just the execution. Some things didn’t go our way. The start was great. It was what we wanted. It got us hyped up, but we just can’t let the big plays get to us, and that’s what happened.”
Quarterback Skowron delivers for Saints in Division II win
LACONIA – Senior quarterback Michael Skowron and his St. Thomas Aquinas teammates found themselves down 6-0 late in the first quarter in Friday’s Division II game at Laconia. Almost 10 minutes had passed, and the Saints’ offense had yet to step on the field.
Behind Skowron, the Saints never flinched, taking a 7-6 lead on their second possession of the game, then tacking on a trio of fourth quarter touchdowns to salt the game away.
“(Skowron) was huge for us on that touchdown drive before the half,” said coach Ed McDonough. “He was 3-for-4 for 58 yards on that drive, and did a great job overseeing the defense. That was big for us.”
That drive put the Saints on top 14-6, and they never looked back.
Skowron also keyed the Saints next scoring drive, which came in the fourth quarter, with a pair of big first down runs.
Just in case his play behind center wasn’t enough, he also helped his team out in the field position battle, as he dropped a pair of punts inside the Laconia 10.
“We got down 7-0, then we had a three-and-out, and Mike punted the ball down to the 1,” McDonough said. “That was huge. Our defense made a stop, and we ended up getting the ball back at the 42, and we were able to score. Then we got the extra point, which put us up 7-6. That was a big boost for us.”
McDonough said Skowron’s leadership doesn’t end at the boundaries to the field either. He said Skowron was a vocal leader on the sidelines, keeping his teammates up and focused.
“He is a gamer,” McDonough said. “He is level headed and doesn’t tend to let his emotions get the better of him He is a three-year veteran who runs the ball well, and sees the field well. He helped us in every way tonight.”
Essex carries Marshwood to come-from-behind win
WESTBROOK, Maine – Marshwood moved to 4-2 in the Class B South football standings, but it wasn’t pretty. The Hawks needed to come from behind in the second half to beat Westbrook, 2014.
Junior back Ryan Essex played a major role in that win. Essex carried the ball 17 times for 151 yards and a touchdown.
The Hawks took a 6-0 lead at 8:10 of the first quarter on Essex’s five-yard TD run. The score was set up by an opening onside kick that pinballed off a Westbrook player right to a Marshwood player at midfield. The big play during the drive was a 20-yard pass from QB Tyler Hussey to Essex. After that TD, the offense stalled for the remainder of the half.
“Maybe we got too relaxed after that first touchdown because we drove so well,” Essex said.
The next four possessions resulted in two three-and-outs, an interception and a drive that was stopped on the Westbrook 20.
Essex also had big runs to set up the two second-half TDs by Cody Bubier and Cole Goodwin. Essex ran the ball 22 and 11 yards on back-to-back carries to move the ball from the Westbrook 44 to the 11 as Bubier finished off the drive with a two-yard dive.
His 54-yard burst moved the ball from the Marshwood 26 to the Westbrook 20, which eventually led to Goodwin’s half-yard scoring lunge on fourth down that put the Hawks ahead to stay.
“Up front we were just blocking really well,” Essex said of the two third-quarter touchdowns. “There were good holes. Downfield on some of my runs there were good blocks.”
Zach Lynch's two touchdowns helps Red Raiders pick up second straight win
MANCHESTER - The Red Raiders have a lot of talented backs in their running back room, but this week, Zach Lynch was in a rhythm in Spaulding’s 42-19 win at Manchester Central, scoring once in each half..
Lynch scored on a 21-yard touchdown run in the first half, and added a 10-yard touchdown in the second half. Lynch also converted a two-point conversion which put Spaulding up 29-19 in the third quarter.
“(Lynch) had a couple of touchdowns, played some great defense and is a really, really good kid,” Spaulding head coach Kevin Hebert said. “He ironically plays running back and when we need him to, he plays some tight end. He’s a bigger back, so obviously he blocks well, and is always all over the field, and today he was all over the field. And defensively he plays safety for us.”
Sheppard, Worrell total five touchdowns in Hilltoppers' win
RAYMOND It was a convincing bounce-back win for Somersworth on Saturday, and two of the key components in the 44-6 win over Raymond were Tayshawn Sheppard and Seth Worrell.
Sheppard ran for 194 yards and three touchdowns, while Seth Worrell scored two touchdowns on kickoff returns.
“Seth’s two kick return touchdowns were our only scoring points initially,” Somersworth head coach Jeremy Lambert said. “As soon as the game started, we had a quick downpour and we ended up putting the ball on the ground several times on scoring drives. But, Seth’s two big touchdown returns put points on the board and kept us going in the right direction.”
Of Sheppard, Lambert said, “He did a lot of the work with 200 yards and three touchdowns, he played awesome.”