Merrimack goes for first win against Dover

What a difference a year makes.

Last season, the Merrimack High School football team opened the season with a win over Hollis/Brookline.

Merrimack coach Joe Battista felt fortunate that his Division II squad was able to hold off an upstart Division III team in the season’s opening week.

This year? A young Merrimack team fell to Division III Goffstown, 27-26, in the season’s first game, and the Tomahawks’ coach couldn’t be happier.

“I was very proud of my team,” Battista said. “Going into the season, I told everyone that we were a young team and going into Friday night, I didn’t know what to expect before the game. To fall behind by two touchdowns, we were jittery in the first and you could tell we were young. To see the way we responded, yeah it goes down as a one-point loss, but as far as I’m concerned, it was a victory in many ways.”

A big difference from a year ago, but some times, that’s how it goes in high school football.

“It’s a year-to-year process,” Battista said. “You hope to get a program into place so that you can carry on a good solid foundation and keep on winning. But at the same time, you get a new group of players every year. It’s the exact opposite of how I felt last year at this time.”

This week, Battista hopes things turn out the same as a season ago. The Tomahawks got a late field goal to beat Dover on the road a year ago, and on Friday, Merrimack will host the Green Wave at 7 p.m. in the first Division II game for both teams.

Battista goes into this week knowing that his team will have its hands full, no matter what Dover did a week ago.

“I don’t expect them to come out and turn the ball over four times early against us at all,” Battista said. “I expect them to come in here flying around. I think they’re going to try to jump on us early.”

Although the Tomahawks are young, they will have some confidence going into Friday’s game, just because of the way they were able to rally against the Grizzlies.

“I think they feel a lot more confident and I think they realize they belong out there on the varsity field,” Battista said. “At the same time, they’re a young team and we still have to get after them. They might feel like they accomplished something last week, but we’ve got to get on them about that.”

Merrimack will once again turn to its two most productive backs, Jackson King and Chaz Myers. King finished with 120 yards on the ground and another 81 receiving, while Myers ran for 82 yards last week.

“You can’t say enough things about the King kid,” Battista said. “I’ve run out of adjectives at this point to describe the way he plays. He brought it last week. Chaz Myers, I think he surprised a couple people. Not us, personally, but I think Goffstown was surprised with the speed of the kid. I was pleased with the offensive line, with the way they played in the second half. It’s a young line, we have two sophomore starters.”

Merrimack and Dover will kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in Merrimack.