Still plenty to be settled in Divisions II and III

The Merrimack High School football team had an unspoken goal at the start of this season – make the playoffs.

Although a lot needs to happen in the next two days for the Tomahawks to get into the postseason, they still have a shot.

“Hats off to my seniors,” Merrimack coach Joe Battista said. “They came into the season, they had a goal, and we never spoke openly about it, but I knew their goal was to make the playoffs. Even when we went through a losing streak, they didn’t lose focus. I said at the beginning of the season, I had a strong locker room and good leadership from my seniors and they’ve lived up to that.”

Merrimack (4-3 in division, 6-3 overall) goes into Friday night’s game (kickoff at 7 p.m.) at Winnacunnet (5-2, 7-2) needing a win to have any shot at making the Division II playoffs. And if the Tomahawks get that win, they’ll need some help from Timberlane.

The Owls (5-2) play at Dover (5-2) and in order for Merrimack to get in, it needs Timberlane to win that game. If the Tomahawks win and finish tied with Dover and Winnacunnet, they’d win the head-to-head tiebreakers, regardless of what happens in the Keene-Bishop Guertin game on Saturday.

Knowing that, Battista expects his team to be ready to go against the Warriors.

“They are very motivated and very vocal about pushing harder,” he said. “I expect them to be flying around and I feel like we’ll be ready to play Friday.”

As for Bishop Guertin (6-1), the Cardinals are the only team that’s already clinched a playoff spot and a win would give them the No. 1 seed. But a loss to Keene could potentially drop BG all the way down to the fourth seed.

That game will be played at 7 p.m. Saturday at Stellos Stadium.

Division III

Only one thing is certain in Division III, and that’s that Souhegan (7-0 in division, 8-1 overall) will be the No. 1 seed when the playoffs start.

Everything else is still up for grabs, but a lot easier to figure out than Divisions I or II.

Portsmouth (5-2) plays at Pembroke (2-5) on Saturday, and if the Clippers win, they’re the No. 2 seed. Milford (5-2) plays at Pelham (0-7) on Friday, and if the Spartans also win, they’re the No. 3 seed.

If either team where to lose, it would likely still get in because both teams own head-to-head tiebreakers with the three other teams battling for the final spot.

Bedford (4-3) heads to Souhegan on Friday needing a win just to have a shot at getting into the playoffs. If the Bulldogs win, they’ll need Goffstown (4-3) to knock off Hollis/Brookline (4-3) on Saturday to take that final spot.

Goffstown needs to win and have Bedford lose to get in, while all H/B has to do is win to get in.

Whoever ends up with that fourth spot will get to play Souhegan, the two-time defending division champions, in Amherst when the semifinals start Nov. 13.