There are a lot more 7-on-7 summer football offerings than there were 10 or 15 years ago. But original king of the genre, the Northeast 7v7, still takes the cake.
This year’s East Regional will take place this Saturday at Bishop Fenwick School in Peabody. Dozens of high school football teams from around Massachusetts — and beyond — will descend on the school’s Margin Street campus for a series of touch football games played both in the turf stadium and all over the back grass grounds.
There are 40 teams in all playing this weekend, divided into an Open Division and a Small School Division.
The Open Division has four pools of five teams each, with each team playing four round robin games throughout the day beginning at 10 a.m. The top two teams in each pool then advance to the playoffs, set to begin at 3:10 p.m. with the championship slated for 4:10 p.m.
Among the local contenders, Peabody sits in a tough bracket in the Open Division since the Tanners line up against Arlington (10:30 a.m.), South champion BB&N (11:30), Methuen (12:30) and Barnstable (1:30).
Northeastern Conference rivals Masconomet and Danvers are the only other local clubs taking part in the Open Division, and they’re in the same pool. The Chieftains and Falcons open up against each other at 10:30 a.m. with Masco then going on to face Governor’s (11:30), Lowell (12:30) and Woburn (1:30). Danvers is slated to see Woburn at 12:30, Govs at 1 p.m. and Lowell at 2.
In the Small School Division, the first pool features plenty of local talent with Salem, Lynnfield and St. Mary’s Lynn grouped alongside Wilmington and Falmouth. The Witches play at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Also in the hunt are Hamilton-Wenham and Bishop Fenwick, who are sharing a pool along with Lynn Tech Saugus and Greater Lowell.
Swampscott, which made a run to the Small finals last season, played at 10 a.m. (KIPP Academy), 11 a.m. (Nauset), 12:30 p.m. (Milton-2) and 2 p.m. (Manchester Essex).
Essex Tech, which returns a bevy of skilled players, faces Stoneham at 10:30 a.m., Arlington Catholic at noon, Winthrop at 1 p.m. and Greater Lawerence at 2 p.m.
Similar to the Open Division, the top two teams in each Small pool head on to the three round playoffs starting at 3:10 p.m.
The champion of each division gets an automatic spot in the New England championship tourney being held in Milton next week. Marblehead won the championship of the Open Division in the North Regional held in Berwick, Maine two weekends ago and thus has already qualified.
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To view the full schedule for this weekend’s East Regional, visit http://www.northeast7v7.co/east-regional.html