High School Football: 'Friday Night Lights' comes to Goffstown High
Aug. 31—"FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" will have added meaning to the Goffstown community during the 2023 high school football season.
Goffstown has never played a Friday night game on campus, but that will change when Nashua South travels to Goffstown on Friday night. Not only did Goffstown install lights around its football field in the offseason, it also added a turf field and a new press box.
"Turf, lights, a brand new press box, sound system — it's truly an unbelievable facility," Goffstown coach Nick Hammond said. "Having a surface that you can play on regardless of weather and not be impacted is huge for us, and really athletics as a whole at the school. We don't have to worry about going to (indoor facilities) on days it's raining and things like that."
Goffstown is scheduled to play five regular-season games at home this year. The field will also be used by Gofftown's field hockey, soccer and lacrosse teams.
"The biggest thing for me is the amount of time we can use that space," Goffstown athletic director Justin Hufft said. "In the past, we've had teams practicing all over town. We had this big piece of real estate right behind the school, but we couldn't practice on that field because we had to keep it pristine. Now we'll have a lot more activity there."
Windham is now the only NHIAA Division I football team that does not have lights on its home field.
"It's pretty exciting," Hammond said. "To my knowledge, it's the first time Goffstown has ever had a Friday night game (at the school), so it'll be a pretty cool experience for everyone.
"We're hoping for a big crowd. It should be a big night for Goffstown football and obviously Goffstown athletics as a whole."
There was no movement of teams from one NHIAA division to another in the offseason, and the playoff formats have remained the same as they were last season as well.
Division I: Thirteen teams qualify. Each of the three conference champions receives a first-round bye. The 10 other playoff teams are selected and seeded based on their football point rating.
Division II: Eight teams qualify. The two conference champions will be seeded No. 1 and No. 2. The six other playoff teams are selected and seeded based on their football point rating.
Division III: Four teams qualify based on their football point rating.
Division IV: Four teams qualify based on their football point rating.
The following schools have a first-year head coach this season: Alvirne (Matt Lee), Bishop Guertin (Anthony Nalen), Laconia (Nick Ford). Lebanon (Doug Johnson), West (Andrew Provencher), Merrimack Valley (Matt Shaw), Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough (Guy Donnelly), Bishop Brady (Rob Clauss) and Newfound (Luis Adorno).
Shaw served as co-head coach with Joe Raycraft at Merrimack Valley last season, but Raycraft retired when the 2022 season ended. Nalen spent the 2019 season as the head coach at Epping/Newmarket.
"These guys have done a really good job in terms of understanding the (new) offense," Nalen said. "I think the biggest thing (with having a new coach) is the culture part — what we expect out of them. Every coach has kind of a different mindset in what they want to bring, so having them buy in to the product we're trying to sell to them is important."
Lebanon won't field a varsity team this season, but will play a junior varsity schedule with the hope of returning to the varsity level in 2024.
Lebanon went 0-9 last season. Herb Hatch resigned as the program's head coach after the 2022 season, his only season in the job.
Lebanon won the Division IV title in 2010, reached the 2019 Division III championship game and advanced to the 2021 Division II semifinals.
The 2023 season kicked off Thursday with two Division I games, and there are three more Division I games scheduled to be played on Thursdays this season. Some games were moved to Thursday to avoid holidays, others were moved to deal with the shortage of NHIAA officials.
Salem at Concord (Sept. 14), Exeter at Spaulding (Sept. 14) and Central at Salem (Oct. 12) are the other Thursday games currently scheduled.
Kyle Schofield, a member of the New Hampshire Football Officials' Association, said schools could be asked to add more Thursday games this season if the pool of officials is stretched too thin.
The top game in each division this weekend:
Division I: Concord at Londonderry
Windham at Pinkerton was the obvious choice, but since that was played Thursday night, we'll go with the matchup between the Crimson Tide and Lancers. Londonderry is the favorite, but if Concord can play stingy defense and create some big plays on offense it could be close late.
Division II: St. Thomas at Merrimack Valley
The Saints' season was derailed by injuries last season. St. Thomas was 3-1 before injuries to tailback/linebacker Trent Salyards and fullback/linebacker Tim Avery, but both are back.
The Merrimack Valley program is trending in the right direction and has an underrated player in running back/slot back Reece Clermont.
Division III: Monadnock at Fall Mountain
These are teams with realistic playoff hopes, and the outcome of this game might carry some serious significance in late October.
The Division IV season will begin next weekend. Division IV teams will play a seven-game schedule.
One rule change that may stand out to fans this fall is the way many offensive penalties that occur behind the line of scrimmage are enforced. In the past if there was a holding call behind the line of scrimmage, the penalty would be enforced from the spot of the foul.
Now that penalty will be enforced from the line of scrimmage.
