Souhegan's Brayden Hickman shows how many TDs he had in the Sabers' 43-6 win over rival Milford Friday night at Milford. (Photo by Jay Heald)

MILFORD — The Souhegan High School football team arrived ready to face their longtime rival Milford Spartans under the Friday night lights.

And they proved it.

Souhegan got off to a blazing start in the first quarter, scoring two touchdowns in 14 seconds, one a two-yard run by Ryland Raudelunas and another a fumble recovery return by Brayden Hickman, and that set the tone for a 43-6 Sabers victory.

Milford (1-5) had something to say about it, though. After getting pushed back to their own 10-yard line, the Sabers punt was blocked and recovered by Milford. On 4th and goal from the 15-yard line, Spartans quarterback Brady O’Connor rolled out to his right and found Kadyn Tessier in the corner of the end zone for their first touchdown of the game. 

After Tessier’s touchdown, though, the Sabers (6-0) turned it on, proving too tough a match for Milford. Brayden Hickman, a jack-of-all-trades for the Sabers, stole the show with two more touchdowns in the half – one catch and run and one rush. 

He cited the team’s resilience after some plays that didn’t go their way early on.

“We faced some adversity early on in the game, but I think overall, we did a pretty good job of dealing with it and kind of playing the next play on,” Hickman said.

Souhegan quarterback Michael Fiengo and RB/LB Liam Fisher both put in impressive first-half performances, too. Fiengo threw for 115 yards and 2 TDs, while Fisher scooped up a defensive punt block and ran it in for the touchdown. 

Both teams stuck to the ground game in the second half, with neither finding much success. Defense dominated during two quarters of running clock as the halftime score became the full-time score.

After the game, Souhegan coach Robin Bowkett praised his team for the way they fought all the way through.

“We did a great job at coming out here and trying to control what we can control,” Bowkett said. “Each player dominated their position and their job one play at a time. They play really hard no matter who we’re playing, no matter what the score is, no matter what position it is. We battled a little adversity today, which is what we needed, but our guys responded pretty good.”

Hickman was asked about this team’s future.

“Really our focus is just going to want to know every week,” he said. “We don’t really want to see ourselves too much in the future, because we want to focus on the present, not take any game for granted.” 

The Sabers will take that attitude into next week when they host Plymouth, the team that ended their season last year in the semis, in a huge Division II regular season showdown.