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# Souhegan, Plymouth meet again with a football championship on the line
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/souhegan-plymouth-meet-again-with-a-football-championship-on-the-line/
- Published: 2020-11-21T12:00:15.000Z
- Updated: 2020-11-21T12:00:15.000Z
- Description: Robin Bowkett knows a thing or two about the matchup in Saturday's Division II championship game. The Souhegan High School football coach has been on the field or on the sideline for seven meetings with Plymouth. All of those games have gone the same way. "I’m 0-7 as a player and a coach against Ply
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, championship, football, playoff, Plymouth, slider, Souhegan, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

Robin Bowkett knows a thing or two about the matchup in Saturday's Division II championship game.

The Souhegan High School football coach has been on the field or on the sideline for seven meetings with Plymouth. All of those games have gone the same way.

"I’m 0-7 as a player and a coach against Plymouth," Bowkett said. "Generally a rivalry is pretty two-sided. They’ve gotten our number a bunch of times, which makes sense because they’re the winningest program in the state of New Hampshire by a lot."

Most recently, Bowkett's Sabers fell to the Bobcats in the quarterfinals in 2017 and in the semifinals in 2018, but prior to those two games, the programs that met in the playoffs seven times from 1998-2007 hadn't played each other in almost 10 years.

This year's title game, which will kickoff at 1 p.m. at Souhegan, is the fifth time the two programs have met in a championship game; Plymouth has won all five. In fact, in the nine previous playoff meetings between the teams, the Bobcats have won eight of them.

"We get plenty of stories (from the coaches)," Souhegan quarterback Austin Jain said. "It feels like way more of a rivalry. The game is bigger. You get a realization of how big this game is."

But what impact will that history have on this year's final? Not a lot, according to Bowkett.

"While the tradition is great, the rivalry is great, we’re talking about the 2020 Sabers and the 2020 Plymouth Bobcats," he said. "This year, it feels different."

For Plymouth (6-0), its a fifth-straight championship game appearance, but the first one that won't be played at the University of New Hampshire. The Bobcats had won three straight D2 titles before falling to Hollis Brookline, 24-13, in last year's final.

This season, Plymouth has been able to find ways to win, picking up a pair of last-second wins over Timberlane and Kennett during the regular season, while holding the Eagles to just six points in a playoff rematch two weeks ago. The Bobcats advanced to the title game when Lebanon, their semifinal opponent, was forced to forfeit due to Covid-19 protocols.

"Offensively, they just fire off the ball," Bowkett said. "They’re going to try to be more physical than you up front. They have a lot of experience at the quarterback position. They have backs who run tough and playmakers on the edge.

"They’ll pound you, pound you, and then hit you with play action when you’re not expecting it. They do a great job with that."

Bowkett expects Plymouth to fundamentally sound on defense, but not many teams have been as good as the Sabers on that side of the ball this season.

Souhegan (7-0) allowed 62 points all season, but more than half of that came in a 63-34 win over HB in the quarterfinals. The Sabers have been able to score on defense and on special teams, returning a blocked punt for a touchdown in each of the last two weeks.

"The old coaching cliché is offense wins games and defense wins championships," Bowkett said. "It makes a lot of sense. If you are winning the turnover margin, and we are plus-10 in the turnover margin, you are going to win football games. If you score on defense, you are going to win football games. If you score on special teams, you are going to win football games."

The Sabers hope they've got one more win to go to cap off a year that seemed like it would be special with or without a pandemic.

"We felt really good going into the season," Bowkett said. "Not that we don’t think we have a shot every year, but especially this year, with the guys we have back. We keep telling ourselves, what’s better than this. We’re one of two games left in the state. It’s been surreal, we’ve been enjoying the week and we’re going to enjoy Saturday."