NEWPORT — Lately, members of the Newport High football team have heard lots of honking during their practices at Maryn Field.
Community members have been driving by and letting the Tigers know they’re ready for Saturday, when the top-ranked Tigers visit No. 2 Somersworth in the NHIAA Division IV championship game. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
People are hungry for a state championship. It’s been five years since Newport last made a championship game appearance, where it defeated InterLakes-Moultonborough, 48-14, for the D-III crown.
Saturday’s game is being played at Somersworth based off of win percentage, as the Hilltoppers have played only two games but won both. Newport is 6-1 and has won five straight since it fell at D-II Lebanon, 7-6, in Week 2.
Where the game is played doesn’t matter, but bringing the town its 10th state title does.
“We’ve been hearing about it a lot; people are excited,” said running back Jagger Lovely, who has rushed for an Upper Valley-best 833 yards and seven touchdowns. “Every time we’re at practice, people are driving by and honking. This town is just really ready for this game.”
Added Marius Edwards: “Field location isn’t a very big deal. I’m just happy to be playing in the championship game.”
Newport’s offense has been on a historic tear, outscoring opponents, 286-43, and averaging 40.8 points per game through seven contests in its first season back in Division IV. In 2018, the year before coach John Proper took over, the Tigers scored only 100 points in nine outings.
Proper has turned around the team’s scoring woes with a power-running offense that doesn’t turn the ball over and moves quickly down the field. Lovely leads the rushing attack, but the Tigers’ ability to constantly have another player step up, which ultimately tires opponents’ defenses, has been the difference-maker.
Josh Sharron and Tyler Gobin have also combined for 569 yards and eight scores on 64 rushes. Plus, Sharron has pulled in four catches and a receiving TD.
Edwards has been a dual threat at quarterback, too. While rushing for 280 yards and 12 touchdowns, he has thrown for 253 yards and two scores.
“Watching Newport play, that’s good high school football,” said Somersworth coach Jeremy Lambert, who is in his second season. “They have a ton of energy; they’re fast. Their big guys play with speed. They run the ball downhill. I love seeing the excitement that they bring. As a team, they are the total package.”
Somersworth features a 17-player senior class, and Lambert said he knew entering the season that his team was capable of making a postseason run. At last season’s all-state meeting, he and Proper chatted about the real possibility of their teams meeting in the playoffs.
The Hilltoppers last played in a state title game in 2012, when they lost to Monadnock, 9-0, for the D-V crown. The program last won a championship in 1997 in D-IV.
Somersworth played only Raymond this season, outscoring the Rams, 55-18. And in last week’s semifinals, the Hilltoppers picked off Raymond quarterback Richard Gibby six times.
Ethan Turgeon caught a 69-yard pass for a score and had three of those interceptions. Calvin Lambert also had a 48-yard touchdown run.
Jeremy Lambert said the downside of playing only one team is not seeing other schemes and plays in game situations.
He knows that Newport won’t put the ball in the air as often as Raymond, but whoever wins the turnover battle will be at an advantage.
“They have a lot of size up front,” Proper said. “They faced a team in Raymond that ran the spread, and we really haven’t done that. Not that we haven’t wanted to, but we’ve gotten up so much and I don’t want to run up the score. If they can’t stop us running it, I’m fine with that.”
Proper is only in his second year, too. But he’s been around the 15 seniors since they were in second grade, and the year before he accepted the varsity job he was the head coach of the junior varsity team, which went undefeated.
He’s committed to bringing the football town back to glory because he, too, is a Tiger.
A 1996 Newport graduate, Proper was a defensive end and center on the 1995 team that beat Plymouth, 25-12, for the D-IV title. He was also a sophomore in 1993 when the Tigers lost at Somersworth in the D-III championship game, 22-14.
Proper knows it’s a long bus ride over to the Seacoast. He also what it feels like to win and lose in the big game.
“I want those kids to feel that (winning) feeling,” he said. “And also for our underclassmen, just to experience this is huge for them to continue building our program moving forward.”
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.