Merrimack's Maverick Torres (7) and Cayden Dine (4) celebrate a fourth quarter TD in Friday's season opener vs. Bedford at Student Memorial Field. (Photo by Dan Attori)

MERRIMACK – The first game of the season is always tough. Playing Division I powerhouse Bedford makes it even tougher.

Merrimack kept Friday night’s season opener close early on and junior quarterback Maverick Torres threw for over 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his first varsity game under center, but the Bulldogs controlled the line of scrimmage and senior running back Brody Helton (206 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries) and senior quarterback Bennett Matthews (163 rush yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, 5-for-11 with 70 passing yards and a touchdown) eventually wore the Tomahawks down to claim a 48-20 victory.

Helton, arguably the best running back in the state, with over 1,000 rushing yards in each of the past two seasons, broke away for a 35-yard score in the game’s opening drive.

Torres moved the ball well on Merrimack’s first two drives, but a couple plays didn’t break the Tomahawks’ way. Their first drive was a turnover on downs after Merrimack fell mere inches shy of a first down. Torres connected with senior receiver Cayden Dine on a 27 yard pass, but Dine was hit near the goal line and fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone. The referees ruled the play a fumble on the 1 and a touchback, giving Bedford possession.

Helton responded with a 41 yard TD run just a few plays later.

“Obviously, they’re really good. (Bedford is) well coached,” Merrimack head coach Kip Jackson said. “In the first quarter we didn’t finish some plays, when you do that against a really good team and you have no margin for error that’s what happens. The game starts to slip away. We needed to take advantage of our breaks in the first half. The reality is it should’ve been (closer), but we didn’t finish drives.”

Torres threw his first varsity touchdown pass as time expired in the first quarter, connecting with Dine for 32 yards, but Matthews threw a 9-yard scoring pass to Brycen D’Urso and Helton reached the end zone a third time in the second quarter, giving the Bulldogs a 28-6 lead going into halftime.

Matthews ran for 108 of his 163 yards in the third quarter alone, scoring two touchdowns to extend Bedford’s lead to 48-12 heading into the fourth.

“We did a lot of good things. We controlled the line of scrimmage,” Bedford head coach Zach Matthews said. “But first game stuff, we got a little sloppy with some of our tackling, some of our execution…. There’s things we expect to do better in our program and we still have a lot of things we need to get better at. … (Merrimack’s) kids battled and gave us a tough fight into the second half and into the third quarter.”

Senior Shea Scott, the Tomahawks’ leading rusher with 76 yards on 10 carries, scored on a 49-yard run in the middle of the third and Torres found Dine in the end zone on a short pass with 4:31 left to cap the scoring.

Torres was a bright spot for Merrimack, finishing the game with 204 yards on 15-for-24 passing and connecting with seven different receivers. His chemistry with Dine was especially prominent, with Dine hauling in six catches for 90 yards.

“He’s been getting better all summer,” coach Jackson said of his new quarterback. “We’re looking forward to seeing how he grows this season…”

Many of his teammates also showed some growth. The Tomahawks went 3-5 last season with a relatively young team and lost to Bedford (semifinalists last year with a 9-1 record, and the 2022 and 2023 champions), 47-0.

“We still obviously have to close the gap a little bit more, but definitely taking steps in the right direction,” Jackson said. “We have really good kids and I’m proud of the effort they put out there.”