November 5, 2026 by David Wolcott, photos by Joshua Ross
Harbormen earned the ninth seed in the Div. 3 football tourney bracket
Assigned one seed short of getting a home playoff game, No. 9 Hingham High (5-3) begins the Division 3 high school football tournament Friday night at #8 Milton High (6-2). Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Friday’s winner advances to play the winner of No. 1 seed Mansfield (7-1) and No. 16 Malden Catholic (4-4). That game is Thursday at 6 p.m. The losing teams will have their next game scheduled by the MIAA followed by the annual Thanksgiving morning game to conclude the season.
Task one for the Harbormen is finding a way to get off the see-saw they were on during October when they compiled a record of 3-2. The win one week, lose the next week trend started with a win over Plymouth North and ended with a shutout victory over Silver Lake. Shuffled between those games was a win over Whitman-Hason as well as losses to Marshfield and Duxbury.
One way to break the current see-saw trend would be to lock down on big plays on the defensive side of the football. Marshfield and Duxbury, both Super Bowl level teams, combined to score 80 points on the Harbormen with a number of those points coming via long TD receptions.
But against W-H, Plymouth North, and Silver Lake, there were no leaks to be found with only 14 points allowed, a touchdown each against Whitman-Hanson and Plymouth North.
Junior Liam Merrigan and senior captain Peter Ford have quarterbacked the offense to an average of 24.8 points per game. They’re allowing 14.6 points per game this season.
Hingham ended the regular season Oct. 30 with a 9-0 road win at Silver Lake on a James Slankas 40-yard field goal and a short touchdown run by senior captain Riley Bello.
Bello is one of 10 Harbormen to put points on the scoreboard this season. Junior running back Justin Kosierowski had eight touchdowns and multiple 100+ yard rushing games before a leg injury against Plymouth North put him on the sideline. Injuries along the line during the season to junior Benjamin Izmirlic and senior captain Chris Kargbo have tested the depth of that position group.
Defense and special teams have done a nice job helping out the offense with turnovers and touchdowns. Harvard-commit Cole Palek’s a key player at linebacker and wide receiver. He’s also taken back two kick returns for touchdowns.
Fighting out of the Herget Division of the Bay State Conference are the Milton High Wildcats. Their only losses have come against Marshfield in Week 1 and a 21-0 loss to Walpole back on Oct. 16. They’ve looking to take it to the next level after losing in the state semifinals last year to North Attleboro.
The Wildcats can light up the scoreboard with an average of 30.6 points per game. Supplying the majority of the electricity for those lights has been senior running back Jayden Dubois. He’s rushed for 17 touchdowns, including four in a game twice and a hat trick of TD’s in another victory, making him the leading scorer in Division 3 with 102 points all by himself.
Peter Skutnick is seventh on the D3 scoring list with eight rushing touchdowns, a two-point conversion, and 24 PATs. Senior quarterback Sean Lane gives the Wildcats a big threat in the passing game. His favorite target has been Taj Chung and his three touchdown catches.