Not five minutes had passed following his team’s win at Lynn English last Friday night when veteran Peabody High football coach Mark Bettencourt reminded his team of a sobering reality.
“We start play in the Northeastern Conference next week,” Bettencourt told his assembled players, before refreshing their memories for what was probably the umpteenth time, “and you did not win a game in the NEC last year.
“Let’s make sure last season was the fluke and get back to winning ballgames in the league.”
What Bettencourt and his coaching staff are selling, the players are buying. The Tanners (3-0) are eager to take on host Beverly Saturday (11 a.m.) at Hurd Stadium, intent on putting their first NEC game of 2026 into the ‘W’ column.
Being eager to erase last year’s 2-9 campaign (winless in the NEC Dunn) is a huge motivator. The fact that no one picked them to ascend to the conference penthouse is another.
“When we read stories about Danvers, Swampscott, Marblehead being the best teams in the league …,” said senior captain Jack Smith, his voice trailing off before picking back up. “We’re looking to prove we’re the team to beat and we’re the team that people will say, ‘Oh, we have Peabody this week; this might be a tough week’. We want to be that team.”
Mark Bettencourt Jr., a fellow captain and 17-year-old junior lineman, concurred.
“We want to get back to where the program was when we were 10-1 (in 2023),” he said. “After last year, we need to get back to where we were beforehand. We’re off to a good start, but we have to keep it going.”
Peabody, which is coming off of a 21-0 shutout win at Lynn English, has scored 105 points and given up just 22. That’s a far cry from a year ago, when they were outscored 91-13 during that same time frame.
“It’s been all about the team, our chemistry and for us as captains getting the guys hyped up,” two-way tackle and three-year starter Matt Dresser, another senior captain, said. “We’ve gotten some sacks, some pressures (defensively), then run the ball down team’s throats or passed well when we’ve had to.”
The offense has certainly gotten a jolt from Dominik Mercier at quarterback. Having transferred to his hometown high school after guiding Malden Catholic to the Division 3 state semifinals , he has shown pocket poise and a strong arm while also possessing fleet feet.
Mercier is already giving defensive coordinators migraines. He’s run for a team high 279 yards and five touchdowns while completing better than 77 percent of his passes (31-for-40) for 411 yards and seven TDs — without an interception.
“I’m really working my pocket presence,” said the senior signal caller. “Sometimes I struggle and instinctively scramble and run, but this past week I really toned down and focused on sitting in the pocket and looking for open receivers. It works, especially with how comfortable am I and know where these guys are going to be no matter what.”
Asked how this Peabody team compared to his squad at Malden Catholic last fall, Mercier said, “I feel like we have more talent, to be honest with you, especially with the chemistry we have going back to youth football. I really see us going far with this team.”
He has connected with seven different receivers already, with senior captain Mark Mendonca (12 rec., 144 yards, 3 TDs), Smith (7 rec., 92 yards, TD), speedy sophomore Ryan Levesque (4 rec., 47 yards, 2 TDs) and senior Aniel Espinal (5 rec., 69 yards, TD) all having multiple catches.
“I want people to watch how I play football and the way we do things the right way. That’s what a captain does,” said Mendonca, who led Peabody with a 42-619-6 receiving line in 2025. “I want to help the younger guys and teach them not to get down on themselves, no matter how the play went or how the team is doing in that moment. Just stay in the game and keep pushing, and you’ll always find a way.”
Dresser and Bettencourt Jr. are two lynchpins of an offensive line that features fellow captain Jake Marcotuillo as well as senior Shawn Costa and sophomore right tackle Zaiden Nazaire.
The defense has a galaxy of guys who have made big plays: senior lineman Jameson Cejour, who has had “back-to-back terrific weeks for us” according to his coach; linebackers like James Hooper, Joey Fagundes and Nick Barbosa; alert, playmaking guys in the secondary such as Ty Lomasney and Espinal.
The elder Bettencourt knows if his team is intent on battling for the NEC crown, it starts tomorrow in Beverly. There will be small details his routine-oriented team isn’t used to — the late morning start, playing on the grass at Hurd, etc. — but those are things they can’t control and shouldn’t worry about, he said.
“We just have to do what we do and focus on ourselves, nothing else,” said Bettencourt, who will be looking to win his 80th career game on the Tanner football sidelines.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Who’s going to win the NEC this year’ and most people are favoring Danvers, which I understand they should be,” he added. “But wouldn’t it be wonderful to have our game (against the Falcons Oct. 30 at home) be for something big?”
“Every week our goal is to take another step forward; no backwards steps,” added Smith. “We know Beverly will be a challenge and that they beat us last year at home in the rain … so a little revenge would be nice.”
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September stats can ultimately mean nothing … or they could foreshadow what’s to come.
Take Bishop Fenwick quarterback Andrew Kiricoples. In three games thus far he’s thrown for 693 yards and 11 touchdowns while completing 52-of-75 passes. Extrapolating those numbers over a full 11-game season, the rocket armed junior signal caller would complete 191-of 275 attempts for 2,541 yards and a North Shore record 40 touchdown passes.
The long time record of 39 TD tosses in one season has been held for 24 years, when Swampscott’s Kyle Beatrice did so while guiding the Big Blue to the Division 3 Super Bowl final in 2002. He also threw for 3,333 yards that fall (averaging 256 per game), another North Shore record.
Having passed for 2,311 yards and 26 TDs as a sophomore, Kiricoples, should he continue on his current career trajectory, has the opportunity to finish at, or near, the top in several local passing criteria.
Peabody’s Shea Lynch, currently the senior QB for unbeaten and nationally ranked Endicott College, is the region’s all-time TD passing leader with 78; Beatrice’s final total of 6,283 yards remain atop the local heap. Kiricoples — who has a chance at being the sixth North Shore quarterback to throw for 5,000 career yards before the year is out —could conceivably topple both of those hallowed marks.
There’s also Fenwick wideout Jamie Dube. A fellow Crusader captain, Dube has been Kiricoples’ most frequent target, having caught 25 passes for 399 yards and six end zone visits. If we average those stats out over an 11-game campaign, he’d wind up with 92 catches for 1,463 yards and 22 TDs.
That would be a new North Shore receiving record, and the TDs would equal the best mark regionally. Both of those records are currently held by former Pingree great Justin Assad, who turned 64 catches into 1,327 yards and 22 TDs in 2015. Assad averaged nearly 21 yards per catch that season.
It should be a great battle to follow the numbers that both and St. John’s Prep superstar wideout Riley Selvais wind up with. Selvais, a junior with several Division 1 offers, has 23 catches for 359 yards and 3 TDs for the unbeaten Eagles one year removed from winning the area’s Triple Crown for receivers (71 catches, 1,231 yards, 15 TDs).
Dube, Selvais, or anyone else isn’t likely to break the North Shore mark for most receptions in one season. The 115 grabs that Fenwick’s Ryan Lipka took in during the 2010 season will likely stand for a long, long time.
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Some Week 4 game tidbits:
Unbeaten Danvers (3-0), which hosts Marblehead (1-2) Saturday at 11 a.m., has won only two of its last 10 contests at Dr. Deering Stadium against the Magicians (2005, 2019). This will be the 95th meeting between the two schools, with MHS holding a comfortable 57-37 series lead.
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Beverly, which will lean on the North Shore’s leading rusher, Sean Okhuozagbon (358 yards, 3 TDs) tomorrow against Peabody (11 a.m.), has split their last 10 meetings with the Tanners but still has a 38-31-3 controlling edge in their all-time series.
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Salem and Swampscott battle for the 50th time tonight; the Witches, who will host the game at Bertram Field (6:30 p.m.) lead the overall series, 25-22-2, but have dropped six straight and 10 of their last 12 against the Big Blue.
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In a continuous rivalry that dates back to 1978, Bishop Fenwick looks to build upon its 26-21 series lead against visiting Archbishop Williams tonight (7 p.m.) at Donaldson Field.
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Masconomet’s search for its first win this season won’t get any easier tonight when it hits the road to face an unbeaten Catholic Conference opponent in St. John’s Shrewsbury.
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Unbeaten St. John’s Prep takes on what has become a new rival in recent seasons, La Salle Academy of Providence, tomorrow on Homecoming Day (1 p.m.). It’s also the Eagles’ home opener.
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Moving The Chains, a column on North Shore high school football, appears in The Salem News each Friday during the fall season. Contact Phil Stacey at pstacey@salemnews.com and follow him on X @PhilStacey_SN
Contact Phil Stacey
@PhilStacey_SN