Souhegan's Tyler Ford throws a pass during Tuesday's scrimmage against Manchester Central.
MANCHESTER – The Souhegan High School football team is almost done its gauntlet of preseason scrimmages against Manchester football teams.
The Sabers went up against Manchester Central Tuesday night at Gill Stadium, this after last Saturday’s scrimmage against Manchester Memorial. On Friday, Souhegan will face Manchester West in the Queen City Jamboree, also at Gill.
Souhegan also took on Nashua North and Timberlane in a three-team scrimmage on Aug. 18.
While playing against teams from Division I and II helps the Sabers prepare for their Division III schedule, coach Mike Beliveau admits it’s a tight rope his team walks.
“We do this purposefully,” he said of the preseason scheduling. “We’ve been punched in the mouth a little bit. In some cases, we’ve started to get off the ground and punch back physically. We have to be careful we’re not too aggressive in the preseason where we run ourselves into injury.
“It’s a fine line. We’re a little banged up, but I think we should make it back in a week or so.”
Beliveau was cautious Tuesday, holding out four starters, including quarter back Mike Luks. All four were rested with “bruises and aches and pulls,” and the first string on both sides of the ball only went for one series.
“We came over here with a plan,” Beliveau said. “We’re going to play our first string against Central for an offensive possession and a defensive possession and then get them out. We did that.”
Souhegan was also able to get a good look at players who will fill in the backup spots on the varsity roster. Among those players were quarterbacks Rob McCormick, Zadek Burstein and Tyler Ford.
“We were able to use this scrimmage to evaluate how our depth is at the second, third and fourth levels,” Beliveau said. “We played three quarterbacks today. They’re all kind of in a battle for the backup spot. I thought they were all pretty good.”
The Sabers will face West at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at Gill Stadium.