Windham varsity football squad on way to great season

By Matt Pascarella

In preparation for the upcoming fall season, Windham’s varsity football team competed in a controlled scrimmage against Fryeburg Academy at Windham High School on Saturday, Aug. 24 and showed great promise.

Windham High senior Brayden Penney makes his way
over the defense toward the goal line during a preseason
varsity football controlled scrimmage against
Fryeburg Academy. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

A controlled scrimmage is more like a practice session for coaches and players to refine skills, evaluate performance and figure out how the team works best to be strongest during the regular season. While no score is kept, Fryeburg Academy never made it into Windham’s end zone and Windham made it into Fryeburg Academy’s end zone twice during the scrimmage.

“The goal was to let them have an opportunity to play,” said Windham varsity football coach Matt Perkins. “You get in practice; you think you have something, and you never really know until you play. Some guys got live repetitions – it was great. The puzzle is constantly moving here; we’re pretty happy and pretty healthy, we’ve got some young guys that have got to step up. Our pass game was good, our routes were good, pass protection was good. Our run game at times had some really good life. Defensively I thought we played well, first drive, played great ten plays, Fryeburg had a long drive on us, and we stood up and stopped them. That’s always huge – that’s something we’ll go back to during the season. You had a fourth-down stand, those are big.”

One of the things that stood out to Perkins during this scrimmage was the team’s effort and guys getting after it.

Windham’s defense shut down Fryeburg Academy early, with several tackles, which stopped their offense, limiting their opponent’s yardage.

Senior Brayden Penney had an estimated 20-plus yard run. This was immediately followed by Windham junior Karl Longstreth’s big multi-yard run.

The Eagles’ defense gave it all and made it very hard for Fryeburg Academy to get through. Junior Wyatt Washburn had a solid tackle.

Junior Mason Arbour made it into the end zone followed by sophomore Landon Wyman who narrowly avoided a defender and crossed the goal line.

“We were just looking to get better,” said Wyman. “We worked really hard all week, and we wanted to show ourselves (we could do it). Our sideline was really loud and that helped a lot, and our defense was really good today. What I think needs work is rallying on tackles, maybe being even louder (from the sideline). I’m hoping we have a great season – we’re looking good ... I think we’re going to show how good we are.”

Windham’s defensive line kept it up until the end of the scrimmage.

“I feel like the goal was to get better,” said Penney. “Get our repetitions in and get ready for season. Takeaway is last season, help the younger guys out and motivate them to get better and push harder ... and set a good role model for the program. The sidelines were hyping our teammates up.”

Penney wants the team to win games and make it to the state championship as well as get better on and off the field. He feels good about the team.

Windham’s home opener is at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6 against Noble. <