Spartans looking for a better showing this time against Clippers

The Milford High School football team is hoping that history doesn’t always repeat itself.

The Spartans find themselves in a very familiar position going into Friday night’s Division III semifinal game.

For the third time in five years, Milford (6-2) will face Portsmouth (6-2) in the postseason and for the second time in three years, that playoff game will be on the seacoast.

Since the Clippers moved down to Division III for the 2006 season, the teams have played seven times. While Milford won two of the first three – 10-7 in 2006 and 27-20 in overtime in 2007, both in the regular season – Portsmouth has won the last four, including a 14-13 victory in the 2008 semifinals and a 40-0 win during the regular season this year.

“It means between the two of us, we’ve been running solid programs,” Milford coach Keith Jones said. “We’ve been in the playoffs nine straight years (in Division III and IV) and they’ve been in every year but one. They’re well-coached and always have tremendous athletes.”

Jones saw those athletes firsthand in the regular season loss, although the Spartans coach isn’t too sure how much that game, which took place on Oct. 1, will impact Friday’s game.

“I don’t want to relive that,” Jones said. “I had a hard time watching the film.

“There used to be years when we played them the last week of the season and then played them the next week. We’re a different team than we were five or six weeks ago. We’ve had some young kids stepping up and some kids who weren’t there are now making a difference.”

One player who has been stepping up as of late is senior Max Goudreau.

At the beginning of the season, Milford was running the ball on the back of another senior, John Forte, while Goudreau and the rest of the backfield were stepping in as a change of pace. Forte complied almost 700 yards in Milford’s first four game, but then teams began to focus on him.

Portsmouth was able to hold Forte to 29 yards rushing and Bedford limited him to 44 the following week. Then Forte got banged up against Souhegan and missed two games with a concussion.

Goudreau took advantage, stepping in as Milford’s lead back, and he’s now on the verge of his own 1,000-yard season. Now that Forte is back, and the Spartans won their final three games leading into the playoffs, giving them momentum heading into the playoffs.

“Forte came back last week,” Jones said. “Other kids have been inserted. We’re finally going to be playing with the same group of kids two weeks in a row. Playing well at the end of the season is the most important thing.”

One other thing that has been consistent in this series is the different between the two games when the teams have played twice.

In 2006, Milford went to Portsmouth and took the No. 2 seed by winning 10-7. The following week, Portsmouth went to Milford and won 32-0 in the semifinals.

In 2008, the teams played in Milford during the regular season, and Portsmouth won 43-15. The next week, in the playoffs, the Clippers had to hang on for a 14-13 victory.

Could another nail-biter be in the works? Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday night at Portsmouth.