Bedford's Bennett Matthews (17) celebrates a touchdown with teammate Alex Bissonnette during Saturday's Division I championship at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – When they left Stellos Stadium after throttling Nashua High School South by 20 points in the second week of the season, the Bedford Bulldogs looked like the best team in Division I.

Saturday, they returned to Stellos and made that official, sealing the deal with a 35-7 pasting of No. 3 Pinkerton Academy in front of a crowd of 2000-plus. It’s the 12-0 Bulldogs’ third state title in the last four seasons.

“It’s a special group of kids,” Bedford coach Zach Matthews said. “Like I’ve said about this group of kids, they were never satisfied at any point in time. … Every time I’ve asked this group for more, they answered the call.”

The Bulldogs were led by the head coach’s son, quarterback Bennett Matthews, who had a hand in all five Bedford scores. He ran for 173 yards and three TDs in 16 carries and completed 8 of 9 passes for 90 yards and two TDs. The senior, who is actually headed to Duke University next year to play lacrosse, directed a 13-play, 63-yard game-opening drive that resulted in his 2-yard TD run. The drive chewed up 7:21 on the clock and set a tone for the game.

“We wanted to come out and send a message,” Zach Matthews said. “We felt we were better than them up front. … We wanted to come out and make a statement that we weren’t going anywhere and they weren’t going to push us around today because that’s the type of football they play. Their a Wing-T team, they want to run it and control the clock, and we wanted to show them we can play that style of ball as well.”

Bedford scored on all four of its possessions in the first half, with Matthews running it in from 19 yards out on the ‘Dogs’ second possession with 8:21 left in the first half. He added a 51-yard TD pass to fellow senior Landon Ellsmore with 3:45 left in the half, and tossed another to Brycen D’Urso for an 8-yard score with 28.1 seconds left in the half. Elijah Todd’s fourth of five PAT kicks on the day made it 28-0 going into the halftime break.

The Astros ended up rushing for 104 yards, but managed just 39 in the first half when it mattered most.

“They (the Bulldogs) were too much for us to handle,” said Pinkerton coach Brian O’Reilly, his Astros finishing at 8-4 overall. “Exactly what most everybody thought is if we couldn’t run the ball on them, we didn’t have much of a chance. They took our running game away the first couple of series, and more importantly we were unable to get them off the field.

“They’re a good team. They’re undefeated for a reason. They have an exceptional athlete (Matthews) at quarterback. We have no answer for him.”

Matthews proved that even more when he ran it in from 29-yards out on Bedford’s first possession of the second half with 5:32 left in the third quarter. Todd’s PAT made it 35-0 and the running time mercy rule kicked in.

Bedford’ Yukica Player of the Year award winner Brody Helton chipped in with 78 yards on 14 carries. Pinkerton’s lone score was a 4-yard TD run by quarterback Aiden McDonald with 10:59 to play.

Pinkerton’s Ryson Michaud (2) grabs the jersey of Bedford running back Brody Helton to try to slow him down during Saturday’s Divsion I championship game at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“Throughout the whole year we knew we had a target on our back,” Bennett Matthews said. “Coming out hot, not getting complacent like we have in past years just let us be the special team that we were.”

And, it was a special day for father and son to get the job done together, and Pinkerton had been the only team this group of seniors had lost to over the last three years on the varsity level.

“Senior year, this was the biggest game he ever coached,” Bennett Matthews said of his father. “He wanted this one so bad, and for me to be able to give it to him and work together and have such a great season, go undefeated, and win a state championship game against the only team our senior class has lost two over the last three years was really special.”