Suffield wins North Regional

By rbrown
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Updated: July 14, 2018

There were plenty of surprises during Saturday’s Northeast 7-on-7 North Regional, but the team that won the regional championship wasn’t one of them.

Suffield (Conn.) Academy, a team led by four-star recruit Tyler Van Dyke, won the tournament title by beating Milton (Mass.) High School 20-18 in the championship game.

Van Dyke, a 6-foot-4 quarterback, has scholarship offers from Boston College, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Massachusetts, Michigan, N.C. State, Rutgers and Syracuse.

Milton was one of the tournament’s surprises, since the team wasn’t even sure it would be participating until late Friday night. Milton replaced Portsmouth R.I., which dropped out of the 38-team field Friday. Milton went toe-to-toe with Suffield, but what originally looked like a complete pass on a two-point conversion on the game’s final play was nullified when it was ruled the receiver had one foot out of bounds when he made the catch.

After advancing out of pool play to the single-elimination portion of the tournament Suffield defeated Methuen (Mass.), Woburn (Mass.) and BB&N (Mass.) to reach the championship game.

By winning the North Regional, Suffield earned an automatic spot in the New England championship, which will be held July 26 at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood, Mass. The New England championship will also feature teams from the South Regional and East Regional.

The semifinal matchups in the North Regional were Suffield vs. BB&N, and Milton vs. Amesbury (Mass.). Amesbury, coached by 2008 Exeter High School graduate Colin McQueen, was one of the tournament’s biggest surprises, especially since the Indians were not at full strength for the competition. McQueen’s father, Kevin McQueen, is Exeter’s varsity baseball coach.

The biggest surprise from New Hampshire was Kingswood, a Division III program that advanced out of pool play to the Round of 16 before losing to BB&N. Exeter and Timberlane were the only other New Hampshire teams that advanced out of pool play. Winnacunnet, last year’s North Regional champion, went 3-1, but lost a tiebreaker and didn’t make it to the Round of 16.

Northeast 7-on-7 North Regional results

Round of 16: Milton defeated St. John’s Prep; Timberlane defeated St. Johnsbury, BB&N defeated Kingswood, Thornton Academy defeated Exeter; Suffield defeated Methuen; Woburn defeated Wilmington; Wells defeated Waconah and Amesbury defeated Haverhill.

Quarterfinals: Milton defeated Timberlane; BB&N defeated Thornton Academy; Suffield defeated Woburn and Amesbury defeated Wells.

Semifinals: Suffield defeated BB&N and Milton defeated Amesbury.

Championship: Suffield 20, Milton 18.