Bedford's back-to-back D1 football titles built on defense

The Bedford High School football team did its homework leading up to the Division I championship game.

The Bulldogs coaching staff watched the film from Londonderry's semifinal win over Pinkerton, saw how the Lancers put lineman Ty Miles in the backfield and dominated the Astros in the run game.

All week, the players and coaches worked on a defensive scheme that would keep Miles from matching up with a smaller defensive back. Instead, the Bulldogs planned to line up so that defensive end Kevin Sheridan would by the one taking on Miles, who has verbally committed to play at the next level at Holy Cross.

"We had a five-man front that we worked on last week, put an extra body on the line of scrimmage, specifically to have Kevin Sheridan go on whatever side (Ty) Miles was and if Miles was coming to that side, Kevin was going to be ready to take him on," Bedford coach Zach Matthews said. "You look at last week, Pinkerton had corners and safeties taking on a kid who is 300 pounds and a Division I scholarship athlete.

"I did not want to put our kids in a situation where we had to have secondary players taking on a big lineman. Our plan was, get Kevin out there, let’s keep him wider than we usually play him, keep everything inside and let the crew rally to the ball."

But that plan when out the window early in Bedford's 28-8 win over Londonderry, when the Lancers opted to use the formation.

Despite that unexpected twist, the Bulldogs' defense was able to adjust.

"They didn’t run as much of that, they got more into their normal stuff," Matthews said. "We put that in for this week, for that specific package, and we probably used it 50-50, even though they were in the other stuff. It ended up working really well against the other stuff, too."

After rushing for 253 yards and five touchdowns against Pinkerton, the Lancers managed just 86 yards against Bedford's defense, averaging 2.5 yards per carry.

Londonderry had just 125 yards total offense in the game, with 40 of that coming on its opening drive, which ended in the Lancers' lone touchdown. Another 57 yards came on a second-half drive that stalled outside the Bedford 40-yard line.

"We couldn’t get enough movement on them up front to come off to the second level," Londonderry coach Jimmy Lauzon said. "We knew that was the challenge. We thought this year would be different because we were bigger, but (Bedford's Jake Benn) and (Spencer Henrichon) play with great base inside.

"If you can’t come off, the linebackers do a good job filling those holes. Sometimes you leave the defensive end untouched on the back end and they’re chasing plays down. Things weren’t opening up on the front and (they're) making the play from behind. They’re just fast and strong, and it was won up front."

Putting in the new defense at such a late stage of the season was no problem for the Bulldogs.

"I don’t think it was that tough (to prepare) honestly," Sheridan said. "Everybody just plays their game and does their job and it works out. We did a lot of film, and all week, our scout team was working to make the ones play great. I’m proud of them."

The second-straight championship caps quite a run for Bedford's defense.

In the last two years, the Bulldogs have allowed an average of 5.3 points per game with 13 shutouts in 25 games. That includes four shutouts in the last two postseasons, and a year ago, Bedford held its four playoff opponents scoreless in 15 of 16 quarters.

Only one team has scored more than 20 points on Bedford in that stretch - Merrimack in the 2022 regular-season finale - and in 2023, the Bulldogs allowed just 41 points total. The starting defense allowed only two touchdowns all season, one of them in the title game, and no passing touchdowns all year.

"We’re a very strong defensive team, last year and this year," Sheridan said. "Our juniors played great last year with the seniors, and definitely this year (as seniors). We were dominant up front.

"I knew they were a good team and they were going to punch us in the mouth, but I was confident we would persevere through it."