Playoff Picture: Division III football (Sept. 21)
It might be a different year, but the Monadnock High School football team has picked up right where it left off a season ago.
It might be a different year, but the Monadnock High School football team has picked up right where it left off a season ago.
In the Huskies' first season in Division III, they got off to a fantastic start, carrying an undefeated record into the semifinals, where they fell to eventual-champion Stevens.
Included in that start were wins in the first three games of the season by a combined 132-0. Monadnock hasn't been that far off this year, despite replacing a handful of key seniors and a head coach, but first-year coach Ryan Avery has seen his team outscore its first three opponents by a combined 139-8. And that eight came early in the season opener.
Monadnock is one of four teams in D3 that hasn't allowed a point in its last two games, as fellow North Conference rivals Newport and Kearsarge have recorded back-to-back shutouts. Campbell, in the South Conference, hasn't allowed a point all season.
Here is a look at where those four teams, and the rest of the division, stands in the race for the D3 playoffs.
North Conference
- x-Newport (3-0), 12.00
- x-Monadnock (3-0), 12.00
- x-Kearsarge (2-1), 8.00
- x-Stevens (2-1), 7.33
- Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough (1-2), 4.00
- Fall Mountain (1-2), 3.33
- Mascoma Valley (1-2), 3.33
- Newfound (0-3), 0.00
South Conference
- x-Somersworth (3-0), 12.67
- x-Campbell (3-0), 10.67
- x-Epping-Newmarket (2-1), 7.33
- x-Bishop Brady (2-1), 6.67
- Franklin (1-2), 3.33
- Farmington-Nute (0-3), 0.00
- Winnsiquam (0-3), 0.00
- Raymond (0-3), 0.00
Playoff teams: Newport, Monadnock, Kearsarge Stevens, Somersworth, Campbell, Epping-Newmarket, Bishop Brady
Quarterfinal matchups: No. 8 Bishop Brady at No. 1 Somersworth; No. 7 Epping-Newmarket at No. 2 Newport; No. 6 Stevens at No. 3 Monadnock; No. 5 Keasarge at No. 4 Campbell.
Tiebreakers
- Newport wins the tiebreaker with Monadnock for the No. 2 seed thanks to more road wins.
- Stevens wins the tiebreaker with Epping-Newmarket thanks to more road wins.
Games to watch this week: Newport at Stevens, Friday, 7 p.m.; Epping-Newmarket at Campbell, Saturday, 1 p.m.; Winnisquam at Bishop Brady, Saturday, 1 p.m.
