Bedford football learns from past special teams experiences against Goffstown

It didn't matter if kickoffs were onside or going out of bounds, there was no way Derek Stank was letting the coverage unit for his Bedford High School football team kick it deep to Goffstown.

Not after what happened to the Bulldogs a year ago.

When the teams met during the regular season in Goffstown, the Grizzlies used some misdirection to return a kickoff for a touchdown. There's some different personnel on special teams, but Goffstown was able to take one back against Timberlane on Sept. 17, and Stank wasn't going to have Bedford be a victim again.

"Last year, I stood on Goffstown's field and kicked it deep and they brought it to the house," the coach said. "That was not something I was willing to jeopardize again going into this. It was obviously a plan of ours to not put it deep unless we can get it into the end zone."

And if that meant giving the Grizzlies a short field to work with, so be it.

"We were willing to roll the dice and have a little bit shorter of a kick knowing they'd have better field position, but also removing the opportunity for them to use the diamond in the back," Stank said. "That's a very dangerous play. You can't let them do it."

But the shorter kickoffs ended up benefiting the Bulldogs in another way.

After scoring to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter last Saturday, Stank called for kicker Joseph Aiello to send the kickoff short toward Goffstown's sideline. The junior did, but the ball went out of bounds, and Goffstown elected to make Bedford kick again.

This time, the coaches called for an onside kick, and Aiello sent the ball high in the air. It came down through the hands of a Grizzlies player and Bedford recovered at the Goffstown 48-yard line.

"We have an explosive kick return and we wanted to give our guys a chance to make plays," Goffstown coach Justin Hufft said. "If we recover that it’s our ball at their 45. We expect to recover onside kicks, but the ball takes funny bounces. It happens."

Twelve plays later, Bedford led 14-0 early in the second quarter.

"Any time you’re offense can maintain possession and extend a drive, it's going to bode well for you," Stank said. "We were just trying to execute and grind down the field. This time we were able to do well in the first half."

Bedford went on to win 21-7 and improve to 4-0 on the season with a game at Pinkerton coming up on Friday. The last time the teams met was in the Division I championship in 2014, won by the Astros.