The ball floats in the air looking for a new home as Campbell back Scott Hershberger, left, is congratulated by Dominick Silva (62) after his first of two TDs, much to the chagrin of Trinity's DeVohn Ellis during Campbell's Divisiion III title win Saturday in Amherst. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

And then there was one.

The local fall sports high school season has the door still open a little bit, as there is one team still competing:

The Souhegan High School football team.

The Sabers are the only locals left standing after the weekend in which five local teams had postseason play, one winning a championship.

One, Campbell, came away with the ultimate prize, capturing the Division III championship, 16-14 over top seed and previously unbeaten Trinity of Manchester.

All the Division I teams – Nashua North, Bishop Guertin and Merrimack, went down to defeat in close games.

But the Sabers almost didn’t survive themselves in the Divsion II semifinals, down 28-14 at halftime against No. 1, unbeaten Gilfford-Belmont on Saturday in Gilford.

But they rallied, a huge 55-yard run by J.J. Bright providing the winning score, and Souhegan (10-1) will now face 11-0 Pelham for the Division II championship Saturday at 1 p.m. at the neutral site of Bedford’s Bulldog Stadium.

Pelham, unbeaten, had dominated the Divsion III landscape before moving up to Division II.

“Pelham’s a wagon,” Sabers coach Robin Bowkett said. “You always know what you’re going to get from them, they’re tough kids, you’re going to feel it after you play Pelham.”

The Sabers did after they lost to the Pythons at home back on Oct. 21, 28-21.

“We abandoned the run pretty early in that game,” Sabers coach Robin Bowkett said. “They were owning the line of scrimmage, early and often, the most that we had seen all year.”

This will be the second Division II title game in three years for Souhegan, which captured the title in 2020 beating Plymouth.

“It comes down to our players,” Bowkett said of the Sabers’ success. “We wouldn’t be in this situation if one, we didn’t have great players, and two, didn’t have great players who are invested and committed to the program the way we do.”

HOW DID CAMPBELL DO IT?

“We knew that if the starts aligned, no one could hang with us in the division,” Campbell coach Glenn Costello said. “The kids grew each week. We had two great practices Wednesday and Thursday.

“I felt calm. The only mistake was me calling (the pass) on fourth-and-2. Other than that the kids executed. We won at the offensive line. Scott really came to as a running back this year. We saw glimpses of it last year. In the off season he got bigger, faster, stronger.

“We just kept working hard, just playing every snap, getting better single day, and that’s why we’re here today,” Campbell lineman Dom Silva said.

The key was the time of possession, basically taking eight minutes off the clock with every possession.

“Toward the end (Trinity) was getting tired,” Cougar lineman Evan St. Pierre said. “We were crunching down that time pretty well. You look at the clock, we were whittling it down piece by piece.

“I don’t want to say they didn’t want it, but they just couldn’t hang with us. We just kept grinding, we wanted it more.”

“We trusted the process,” Campbell QB Jackson Kanaley said.

TOUGH END FOR DIVISION I LOCALS

It was Black Friday, and not in a good sense, for Nashua Football this past weekend as the Cards fell to No. 4 Pinkerton, 14-12 and Nashua North lost to Bedford, 7-0 at Stellos Stadium. The seasons came to an abrupt halt for both, but the Cards had a playoff win under their belts the previous week over Dover in the prelims.

But North, which went in to Friday’s game as the No. 2 seed overall with a 9-0 record, had a bye. The Titans had beaten Bedford already 19-7 in the season opener but Nashua had to try to win without not only defensive force Toby Brown, Jr., who it was well known wouldn’t play due to a knee injury, but then quarterback Derek Finlay, who suffered a knee injury late in the first quarter. He tried to give it a go a couple of times in the second half for a few plays each time, but once he had to run the ball, he had to come out.

And it cost North when they had a first and goal at the Bulldog 5 in the fourth quarter and couldn’t punch it in.

“They were everywhere,” North coach Chad Zibolis said of the Bulldog defenders. “And when you take away our stretch game when Derek can fly up and get that inside power, that’s what we did in the first game. But we just could not get that going.”

The end was tough, as some of the key North seniors won’t play organized football again. Finlay is planning on playing baseball in college and Peters will play lacrosse at Umass-Amherst.

“They’re realizing,” Zibolis said, “that this is it.”

Finlay, Peters, Brown, and Jordyn Raisanen Andino are four key names North will miss, among at least 13 others. Bishop Guertin will say good-bye to QB Matt Santosuosso, back Charlie Bellavance, defensive end/linebacker Jakob Baker, and lineman Rocco Geraci as its key nucleus.

Merrimack, which lost to top seed and unbeaten Londonderry, lose huge keys in senior back/linebacker Reimello Hyde, QB Trent Jackson and receiver Owen Sadowski, among about 14-15 others.

DIVISION I SEMIS

This Saturday, it will be a battle between longtime rivals Londonderry and Pinkerton at Lancer Park on Saturday at 1 p.m., but the other bracket was full of surprises. It will feature No. 6 Timberlane, which won the Division II title last year and moved up, hosting No. 10 Bedford, also Saturday at 1 p.m.

Timberlane (9-2) stunned Exeter late in the game with a 29-28 win. The Owls had won six straight before losing the regular season finale to Portsmouth-Oyster River (the ninth seed, it turned out). But they beat Concord in the prelims 20-14.

The site of the finals Thanksgiving Weekend (Nov. 26) is yet to be determined. Exter’s Bill Ball Stadium could be it, now that the Blue Hawks are out of it. Before the playoffs began, Stellos Stadium had been mentioned as well.

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