By DREW BONIFANT
Monitor staff

They were state champions in 2013. Undefeated and the top seed the next year. A semifinalist once again last year.

But that was all in Division III. Now it’s on to Division II for the Bow Falcons – and one of the area’s most productive football teams in recent seasons will, in essence, be starting from scratch.

“As I’ve said to my kids all along, this is not a situation whereby you can rest on your laurels because we know that so many teams are not going to be very strong, like we saw in the past few years,” Coach Paul Cohen said. “It’s not going to be that way at all. This is, you’re going to have to bring your ‘A’ game every single week.

“The last year and the past several years have been great. And they’re also history.”

It’s a new world for the Falcons. The opponents are unfamiliar. The quality of play that Bow will have to match is higher. Many of the teams that the Falcons play will have bigger numbers and deeper benches.

With so many question marks, Cohen stopped well short of providing the detailed forecast he’s given in the past.

“I would be foolish to try to project where they’re going to finish. I can’t. I can’t do that because I just don’t know enough about the teams we’re going to play,” he said. “It’s not like in the past, where I knew pretty much year to year, ‘Okay, this team does blank, they finished up here last year, etc., etc.,’ and I pretty much could project forward.”

When he turns his attention to the players on his roster, however, Cohen likes what he sees.

“I think as long as we are healthy, we will be competitive. I know that’s what a lot of coaches say, but I firmly believe it’s true,” he said. “I really think that what I have this year is a very interesting mix of kids. They’ve bonded well, they’ve worked hard. They should be ready.”

Graduation hit Bow hard, particularly on the lines, but the Falcons have some familiar names back at key places. Quarterback Matt Harkins is back after guiding Bow to the semis as a sophomore, he has a top-notch target in senior tight end Nate Alford, and senior Justin Mooney, junior Jack Corriveau and senior Mac Kimball lead a versatile group of running backs.

“We’ve been blessed the last several years of having the capacity where we can have five, six different running backs and there’s not a huge drop off, as it were, like there usually is at the high school level,” Cohen said. “These guys are all interchangeable. So that certainly helps us.”

On defense, co-captain Alex Berube and Nolan Filteau anchor the line (as they do on offense), with junior Justin Porath being elevated to a starting defensive end spot. Mooney and Corriveau are outside linebackers with Jack Tellifson and Duke Biehl on the inside, and Kimball, Matt Scanlon, Alex Gott and Mark Borak lead a defensive backfield that Cohen praised as being both athletic and smart.

It’s a good mix – and for Bow to continue the winning seasons that have become a fall tradition, it’ll need to remain that way.

“We have hammered home since the start of camp that we must, must, must be as close to perfect as we can on both sides of the ball,” Cohen said. “There are a lot of unknowns in this season, which in and of itself is not bad. I just look at it as another challenge on the field that we must prepare for. And I think the kids understand that.”