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# Bedford comes out strong to beat Winnacunnet in D1 football quarterfinal
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/bedford-comes-out-strong-to-beat-winnacunnet-in-d1-football-quarterfinal/
- Published: 2025-11-15T14:30:43.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-15T14:30:43.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD – After earning the top seed in the Division I playoffs, the undefeated Bedford High School football team was eager to follow its bye week with aggression entering Friday night’s quarterfinal against Winnacunnet. The eighth-seed Warriors fell victim to that in a dominant fashion from the sta
- Author: Dan Doyon
- Tags: Division I, Bedford, football, playoffs, slider, Winnacunnet, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD – After earning the top seed in the Division I playoffs, the undefeated Bedford High School football team was eager to follow its bye week with aggression entering Friday night’s quarterfinal against Winnacunnet.

The eighth-seeded Warriors fell victim to that in a dominant fashion from the start.

Bedford mauled its way down the field on the opening drive with a five-play scoring capped off by the first of Brycen D’Urso’s three touchdowns to ignite a 24-0 first quarter on the way to the Bulldogs' dominant 44-13 victory over Winnacunnet.

“We talked about it in practice coming off that bye week. We recovered, but we had to come out firing hot,” Bedford quarterback Bennett Matthews said. “We punched them in the mouth right away and got things rolling from there. We set the tone early.”

Bedford running back Brody Helton scampered 15 yards on the first play and added a 32-yarder to help set up D’Urso’s 12-yard scoring run. Helton added a 2-point conversion run to give Bedford an 8-0 lead.

Helton gained 132 yards in the first quarter and finished the night with 166 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown.

“They’re a good team, they’ve got big kids and we knew we had to show up. As you can see, we showed up,” Helton said. “We scored on those first two drives and after that we were rolling.”

Next up for Bedford (10-0) will be Friday’s home date in the D1 semifinals against No. 4 Nashua South (9-2). The Panthers advanced with a 31-14 win over No. 5 Bishop Guertin in the D1 quarterfinals

“When you get the bye week the concern as a coach is that you just don’t know how you’ll come out of it,” Bedford coach Zach Matthews said. “For us and our kids, we just really just wanted to come out with an attack from that first moment. We wanted to put as much pressure on them as we could and I think our kids did that in the first quarter.”

Bennett Matthews made his first big play of the night when he intercepted Winnacunnet quarterback Sean Griffin at Bedford’s 8-yard line.

D’Urso began the 7-play, 92-yard drive with an 18-yard run that was followed by a 21-yard gain by Helton. Bennett Matthews then connected for a 36-yard pass to Landon Ellsmore before he found D’Urso (84 scrimmage yards) for a 12-yard touchdown pass.

Bedford got the ball back quickly after an interception by D’Urso. Helton then ripped off runs of 43 and 13 yards to set up a 6-yard scoring keeper by Bennett Matthews. Helton’s two-point conversion run gave Bedford a 24-0 lead with 1:57 left in the first quarter.

Bennett Matthews complemented his 83-yard rushing night by completing 9 of 15 passes for 102 yards. He also returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown to give Bedford a 37-6 lead early in the third.

“We’re lucky with some of the athletes we have and that overshadows what our offensive line does, because I think we have the best offensive line in the state,” Zach Matthews said. “Certainly some of those holes and the seams we were widening (Friday), started with those guys.”

Winnacunnet coach Ryan Francoeur was pleased with his team’s progress this season, but said his team was immediately outmatched on Friday. Winnacunnet (7-4) advanced with last week’s 34-14 first-round victory over No. 9 Exeter.

“It wasn’t our night,” Francoeur said. “That’s a really good football team and we made too many mistakes early on to put us in a hole. After that, you try to climb out of that hole and that leads to more mistakes.”