By Chris Paul
Three 2022 Londonderry High School graduates from the Division I Championship team played over the weekend at the annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl.
The shine Bowl pits All-Star senior players from New Hampshire and Vermont and was played over the weekend, on Saturday, Aug. 6, at Castleton University in Vermont.
Aiden Washington, Grady Daron, and Matt Jasper represented the Lancer squad this year in the game. Washington and Jasper were captains on the Granite State team. Washington was the starting quarterback, Daron started at wide receiver and Jasper was a starting guard for the east.
The game came down to the final seconds of a back-and-forth contest with the New Hampshire squad winning 7-0 on an extremely hot day for football.
The only touchdown in the game was scored with four minutes left in the second quarter. Washington led the New Hampshire team down the field from deep in their own territory to finish the drive with a 30-yard completion into the end zone to Kevin Kolodziej of Sanborn High School.
The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Football Game motto is, “Strong Legs Run So That Weak Legs May Walk” is the motto of every Shrine Football Game and it can be seen every summer as 76 young men from New Hampshire and Vermont play their hearts out for the benefit of the children in the Shrine facilities. The Shriner’s Hospitals provide care for children up to the age of 18 with special health care needs, and conduct research to discover new knowledge that improves the quality of care and quality of life of the children and their families.
Seventy-six of the top graduated high school seniors from New Hampshire and Vermont are selected to square off each year in a football game where the real winners are the Children in the Shrine Hospitals. More than 4,000 players have participated in the event, of which about two-thirds still live in the Twin States.