Campbell back Scott Hershberger gets lost in a sea of Trinity defenders and Cougar blockers during the teams' regular season meeting in late September in Manchester. (Courtesy file photo by Andrew Sylvia/Manchester Ink Link)

LITCHFIELD – The two programs couldn’t be any more different.

There are the Campbell High School Cougars, from the woodsy town of Litchfield, kids who have played together since they were in grade school for the Hudson-Litchfield Bears.

Then there’s Trinity of Manchester, a school where the players come from all over, mesh together and always seem to produce winning football.

They’ll go head to head on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Souhegan High School’s Saber Field for the Division III title. Trinity (10-0) handed Campbell (8-2) a 36-22 regular season loss in Manchester back on Sept. 30.

“That game seems like a lifetime ago for both of us,” Campbell coach Glenn Costello said. “My message to the team was if you continue to base future success off past experiences, you’re in trouble. So I think we take that whole experience with a grain of salt, one way or another.

“Both teams look completely different from when we first played. Whether that’s injuries, or other circumstances that affect the roster; the message all along for our kids, I stole from (Alabama coach Nick) Saban. One of the reporters asked him, ‘How do you prepare for (some awful team). And he said, ‘We don’t. We prepare to be the best version of ourselves.

“That message has been ours all year, especially in our division.”

Defensively, Campbell will have to deal with Trinity QB Jack Service, who helped turn a 22-14 deficit into a 36-22 win. Trinity’s big play threat is DeVon Ellis.

“DeVon Ellis, I’ve said it a million times, is one of the more dynamic kids in the state,” Costello said. “Every time he touches the ball in space it’s probably six points. He is a ball hawk defensively, if there’s a loose ball, he somehow picks it up and scores. I’ve watched him return kickoffs and punts (for big gains or scores) all season, which is insane that teams are kicking to him.

“Service has shown tremendous growth from his sophomore to his junior year, probably the best quarterback in the division. He run well, throws well,he’s tough to tackle. Both of them have a presence on defense.”

Costello felt Campbell controlled the line of scrimmage but didn’t tackle well, plus had a key turnover, “and our youth was kind of exposed. We were both undefeated, sometimes the kids get kind of caught up in that stuff, and when adversity hit, we didn’t recover. It was a really good teaching moment, and what I’m proud of is we’ve continued to grow.”

And of course, the Cougars have back Scott Hershberger, a sophomore who has rushed for just over 2,000 yards this season, 252 of which came against the Pioneers. Another big key is Cougar quarterback and sometimes wideout Jackson Kanaley.

“The fact that Scott has 2,000 yards, there’s a ton of those directly corolated to Jackson,” Costello said, “whether it’ Jackson’s blocking, Jackson’s leadership, Jackson coordinating everything.”

“They were what we thought, they did a really good job of it and they gave us everything we could handle,” Trinity coach Rob Cathcart said after the first meeting. “We had a really tough time stopping them. We are not as big and strong, so it’s tough for us to deal with that. We had a hard time with it and they came close to taking it from us, we just managed to weather it and get a few big plays and that was the difference.”

That’s the thing; the Cougars will have to deal with the Pioneers speed; Trinity will have to deal with Campbell’s size.

Whoever does a better job at one of those will end up the Division III champion tomorrow. Campbell will look for its first title since 2017; it’s the Cougars’ first title game appearance since 2018.

Trinty, just a few years after playing JV only to get its numbers back up, won the Division III title in 2019 beating Lebanon, who is now in Division II.

“We are small town Litchfield, the kids are in a class of 90 to 100 something kids,” Campbell coach Glenn Costello said. “These kids have played football together in the their back yards, at recess. There’ something special to that vs. a kids who show up at a school and have to introduce themselves to each other. … But I understand the rationale of why they’re in Division III.”

And is glad to be back in the finals.

“I’m stoked,” Costello said. “That is the standard of Campbell football, to be competitive in November. Regardless of the outcome, I couldn’t be prouder of this football team.”

Newsletter