Patience has paid off for Maye, Bedford football

Zach Matthews has been pleased with the way Jack Maye stepped in at quarterback this season for the Bedford High School football team.

But what impressed the Bulldogs' head coach about Maye happened before he ever stepped on the field for his senior season.

After spending the last two seasons as the backup to starter Danny Black, Maye got his first crack at the starting job this season. That he was still at Bedford to do that is not something Matthews takes for granted.

"In this day and age, where kids are leaving communities to go to private schools all over the place," the coach said, "that he believed in himself and he believed in our football program, and he just took the feedback, kept working on getting better, and waited his turn, I think that’s the biggest complement that I can give him."

That patience has paid off for Maye and Bedford, as he helped the top-seeded Bulldogs to another undefeated regular season, as they look to return to the Division I championship for the third year in a row at 7 p.m. at home Friday night against Pinkerton Academy.

When he was first on the varsity roster as a sophomore, Maye knew he wasn't ready to be on the field, leading the team. He watched and worked with Black and others to acclimate himself to that level of play in the hopes that maybe he'd have a shot as a junior.

Instead, Black, who was a junior at the time, helped lead the Bulldogs on a playoff run that saw them win the 2022 D1 title as the 10th seed, something that had never happened before in New Hampshire high school football.

As last season moved along, Maye knew he'd be ready if called upon, if for no other reason than because he'd been the scout team quarterback going against Bedford's defense in practice.

"I always knew I was going to be behind Danny," Maye said. "Sophomore year, I wasn’t ready, and then what Danny did (that) year, I couldn’t compete for the spot. I learned from that, took the scout reps.

"I didn’t take it to heart and played through it. On the scout team, I went against the best defense. They didn’t allow many points, so I think if Danny went down, I would have been ready."

Matthews thinks the experience Maye received in those practices made the transition to varsity starter this year a lot smoother.

"The defense we had last year was better than any defense I’ve coached in high school football, so when you’re going against that every day, what other people are bringing is not going to be better," he said. "I never saw Jack intimidated when he ran our scout team. It was never too big and he was more than willing to get competitive with those guys and challenge them. I think that competitive spirit and his ability to get those reps definitely takes the edge off the nerves."

What helped Maye's nerves this year, too, was that he wasn't the only new face joining the varsity. Bedford graduated seven starters on offense from last season, meaning there'd be some growing pains, but that a lot of guys would be learning together.

"It was kind of figuring out who went where and who was ready," Maye said. "We had a lot of changes. It was kind of like, if you were ready, you were playing, and if you weren’t, you weren’t.

"I had some pressure. Danny took them back-to-back (titles), and Joe (Mikol) was a great QB, too. There is pressure at Bedford to be a good quarterback."

Maye has lived up to that standard, completing just under 72 percent of his passes while throwing for over 1,500 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions, in nine games, including last week's 24-14 comeback playoff win over Alvirne.

He started out that game 2 for 4 passing and would have had an early touchdown pass if not for a penalty that brought it back. But Maye's fourth throw of the game was an interception, and for a quarterback making his first playoff start, it could have been a turning point.

"For me, it wasn’t the fact that he threw an interception," Matthews said. "It was his body language and how he came off the field after. We’re going to throw interceptions, but I thought he was hanging his head and feeling sorry for himself and walking off the field slowly. That’s what I got on him about. We always say play the next play. It’s understanding that one play isn’t going to win or lose a football game."

Maye bounced back from that play by completing all 12 of his remaining throws and finished the game 14 of 16 for 153 yards and a touchdown. That included a scoring drive right before halftime where the senior was 6 for 6 for 57 yards with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Brody Helton.

On the touchdown, Maye scrambled when he couldn't find an open receiver right away, and bought time for Helton to come free.

"He knows the rush is coming, he knows he’s going to take a hit, but to stand in to make the pass when you know you’re going to take a shot has been the biggest thing I’ve been impressed with," Matthews said. "I think a lot of times you see quarterbacks, the pass rush starts to get around them, and their eyes come down and they panic. They start running around. He’s always keeping his eyes down field. He’s willing to take a hit to see that one of our guys might have popped open late."

Maye made a similar play in Bedford's regular-season win over Pinkerton, a 28-25 victory on Oct. 11 in which the Astros got out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. But Maye's touchdown pass to Landon Ellsmore with 1:47 left in the game came after the quarterback moved out of the pocket and his receiver went with him.

"That route wasn’t supposed to finish where it was," Matthews said. "He’s going to make a throw before he takes the hit, that’s what I’ve been most impressed with."

With a rematch with Pinkerton up next, Maye is hoping Bedford gets off to a better start this time.

"That’s been our thing for this year," Maye said. "We don’t start hot on offense and we have to (against Pinkerton). We played with grit and it showed. I think it’s going to be a good game."