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# Plymouth football overcomes challenges to get back to championship game
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/plymouth-football-overcomes-challenges-get-back-championship-game/
- Published: 2016-11-17T16:48:08.000Z
- Updated: 2016-11-17T16:48:08.000Z
- Description: Going into the playoffs, Chris Sanborn had an idea of what might be the three toughest teams for his Plymouth High School football team to face, if the Bobcats reached the championship game.
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, Bow, championship, football, playoffs, Plymouth, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Going into the playoffs, Chris Sanborn had an idea of what might be the three toughest teams for his Plymouth High School football team to face, if the Bobcats reached the championship game.

For Sanborn's team to win another title, it'll have to go through all three of those teams.

After beating St. Thomas in the quarterfinals and upsetting previously-undefeated Windham in the semifinals, No. 4 Plymouth will take on No. 7 Bow in the Division II championship game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the University of New Hampshire.

"I thought the three top teams where St. Thomas, Windham and Bow," the coach said. "Bow is very good up front on the offensive and defensive lines. They've got the top line we've faced all year. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us."

The Bobcats beat the Falcons on the road, 28-12, during the regular season, but Sanborn believes his team caught a few breaks that helped them win that game.

"We had two Hail Mary passes that we scored on and they fumbled in the end zone," he said. "We look at that as it probably should have been a 21-14 win for them."

That win went a long way to helping Plymouth get back into the postseason for the first time since winning the D2 title in 2013, despite coming close each year.

Two years ago, the Bobcats got off to a slow start before turning things around to end the season. Last year, mid-season injuries helped to derail Plymouth, and while the Bobcats have suffered their fair share of setbacks this season, they've been able to overcome the loss of personnel.

"You just want to get in," Sanborn said. "Last year, we could have done some damage. This year, we started well, we hit that bump in the road, but to be 6-0 and set us up that way, it was huge for our program to get back."

It took one of the biggest upsets of the season to get there, as Windham not only entered last week's semifinal unbeaten, but had won its previous 10 games by an average margin of 39.1 points and had scored under 40 points just once.

But Plymouth was able to get an early lead, and thanks to some solid special teams play, managed to stay a step ahead of the Jaguars on the scoreboard.

"We scored first and that was pretty big to get a lead on them," Sanborn said. "The big thing was, and we talk about it all the time, the points after touchdowns. Those points are important whether it's one or two, and they didn't get any. And then the field goal we blocked.

"We had to play well up front. I thought that was the key, both offensively and defensively. They like to blow you off the ball. Once they steamroll you, they bring the wing back around and it's just seven yards and eight yards (each play), and they're very good at it."

Sanborn credits Tyler Morrison, Rowan Drew, Cody Campbell, Drew Hodges and Dylan Hixon as players who stepped up to give Plymouth what it needed, not just against Windham, but down the stretch this season.

"Depth was our trademark this year," he said. "We gave us ourselves a chance, and that's what we always talk about it. You've got to overcome adversity. We know guys are getting hurt, we knew we were down, but we had to preserver."