Telegraph photo by TOM KING Merrimack running back Jake Trahan,left, and Nashua North's Jayden Espinal won't be facing each other Friday night as scheduled as their game was cancelled due to Merrimack COVID concerns.

NASHUA – Stellos Stadium will be dark tonight.

It wasn’t originally supposed to be, as the Nashua High School North and Merrimack football teams were scheduled to play at 6:30.

However, that game, along with several other North vs. Merrimack games, were cancelled due to a six-student COVID-19 outbreak at Merrimack High School reported earlier in the week that has placed the Tomahawks varsity, JV and freshmen football teams in quarantine.

Merrimack athletic director Mike Soucy has shut down the Tomahawks athletic program for the remainder of the week. That includes games as well as practices for all teams. As was reported earlier in the week, the Merrimack cross country teams had already been shut down for two weeks due to the same outbreak, but a statement posted on the school website by Superintendent Mark McLaughlin added all three football teams and cheer to the list “as a result of confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 and due to concerns about possible contact among athletes.”

“We’ve cancelled everything out of an abundance of caution,” Soucy said Thursday. “I’ve shut down all athletics for the remainder of the week.”

The quarantines will be for two weeks with staggered returns depending on the cases.

“Given the individual start dates of quarantine for each team, as positive COVID cases have been confirmed, students will be eligible to return from quarantine at staggered times beginning as early as October 8th and, for now, as late as October 13th,” McLaughlin said.

Besides the varsity football game, North and Merrimack were slated to face each other this week twice in boys and girls soccer, field hockey, and volleyball, and that includes sub-varsity games as well.

There was hope after games were cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday that the rematches and football could be played after any further testing or contact tracing, but that wasn’t possible. As Soucy said, “Things have changed a little bit (since earlier in the week).”

“We were hopeful we were going to be able to schedule the remainder of the games,” Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras said. “But (she and Soucy) felt that with everything going on (at Merrimack) it was safer to cancel the games.”

None of the cancelled games, including football, will be made up. “There isn’t time,” Gingras said.

To be clear, there is no known issue right now at Nashua North. The Titans next game is next Saturday night, Oct. 10 at Stellos vs. Bishop Guertin. Gingras in fact found a replacement opponent yesterday for the Titans freshmen football team as they played Londonderry instead of Merrimack.

“We’ll continue to have practice,” North football coach Dante Laurendi said. “We’ll continue to stay focused on what we can stay focused on and control what we can control. Things are being done in the best interest of all the student athletes.

“We knew going in we were going to have things like this happen. Everyone is trying to do what’s in the best interest of their kids and in the best interest of the schools they’re playing.”

Now the question is what happens with Merrimack beyond this week. The Tomahawks are slated to play Salem in everything next week, including football next Friday. It’s not known when football’s quarantine ends exactly, but one would imagine it would be a lot to ask for a team to return to practice next Thursday the 8th with one day to prepare for a game the following night.

“I want to let things play out a little bit, then we’ll make a decision in a couple of days,” Soucy said regarding next week’s entire schedule. “There are so many moving parts to this. But everything we’re talking about, our top priority is the health and safety of all the teams. Top priority.”

Is Soucy fearful the entire fall sports season may be in danger at Merrimack?

“Right now, we’re not there yet,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean we eventually won’t be.”

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