Week 10 high school football preview: Hudson’s task

Hudson will attempt to do something no Division 6 football team has accomplished since the MIAA went to a statewide format in 2021: win the tournament as a top seed.

Rockland won the title in 2021 as a four-seed, St. Mary’s (Lynn) prevailed as a three-seed in 2022 and Fairhaven captured the crown last year as an eight-seed.

Hudson has the credentials to snap that streak. The Hawks went undefeated during the season, scoring 40 or more points in seven of eight games and no opponent came within 27 points of the high-flying Central Mass. squad.

The road to Gillette won’t be easy as the Div. 6 field is arguably the deepest of the eight divisions. Five of the eight teams in the lower half of the field boasted records of 6-2 or better including undefeated Bay Path (8-0) checking in at No. 10.

“It’s funny you mention this because we were talking the other day and if we were in Division 5, we would be among the top eight teams,” said North Reading coach Ed Blum, whose 7-1 squad is seeded 13 and will travel to fourth-seed Norwell. “This really is a wide open division. The top four seeds are there for a reason, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some upsets.”

Added Winthrop coach Jon Caidgan, whose 5-3 Vikings are seeded 12 and travel to fifth-seeded Abington: “The chalk doesn’t always win in this division and you can see it in the last three years under this format.”

The MIAA has put out weekly power rankings since late September, so many of the teams had an inkling where they were going to land. One of those double-digit seeds is Dennis-Yarmouth, who enters the tournament as a 12-seed with a 6-2 record.

“We kind of knew where we were going to be, but our kids are excited about the opportunity,” said Dolphins’ coach Chris Marsh. “(First-round opponent) Lynnfield isn’t a team we are really familiar with, but they look good on film.”

Stoneham coach Bob Almeida knows too well about the difficulty in winning as a top-seed. His Spartans were the top-seed in the 2022 tournament and lost in the championship game to No. 3 St. Mary’s. This year, Stoneham turned in a solid 7-1 season and is the second seed.

“I think it’s one of those years, but this division really is that good,” Almeida said. “In any other year, (third-seeded) Fairhaven would be considered a cakewalk to win because they have almost everyone back from a team that won it all last year and played BC High really tough. That just shows you how tough the division is, there is no advantage to being seeded anywhere.”

St. Mary’s learned the hard way just how close the margin is between sides. In its only loss to Bishop Feehan (who is ranked fourth in the Div. 2 tournament), a questionable call in the fourth quarter directly led to a Shamrocks touchdown, giving them a 13-0 win. Had St. Mary’s lost the game by six points, they would have been seeded in the top eight and been playing Sandwich at home rather than traveling there as the ninth-seed.

“This is the toughest that I’ve seen,” St. Mary’s coach Sean Driscoll said of Div. 6. “I like the format, but it hurt us this year in that our league wasn’t as strong as it’s been before and not getting a chance to play Bishop Fenwick during the regular season hurt our power rating.”

Away from Div. 6, history could be made in Northbridge as Ken LaChapelle seeks to become the first football coach in state history to win 400 games when his team hosts Oxford in the opening round of the Div. 7 state tournament. The head coach at the school since 1976, LaChapelle has a 399-136-6 record.

Come Sunday morning, several of the local prep schools will learn if they qualify for a NEPSAC bowl bid. In the ISL-7, BB&N (7-0) and Tabor (6-1) are locks, with Belmont Hill (4-3) holding a tiebreaker via head-to-head over St. Sebastian’s for a third bid among the larger schools.

In the ISL-9, Middlesex (6-1) appears primed for a berth along with Noble and Greenough (6-1). Among the local teams in the Evergreen League, St. Paul’s (7-0) and Dexter Southfield (7-1) are essentially in.