DARTMOUTH — The Old Rochester Regional High School football team will play its first game of the season against Dartmouth High school at their opponent’s newly renovated stadium on Friday, sept. 13 at 4 p.m.

Old Rochester’s head coach Bryce Guilbeault said that the opposing team has some big, strong, and athletic  players and that “on defense they fly to the ball.”

Guilbeault added that his team “had a by-week the first week of the season, so [they] had a little extra time to practice.”

In that time, the Old Rochester Bulldogs have slowly but surely been adding to their playbook and making sure that each player knows their responsibility on any given play.

Guilbeault’s team began practicing on Friday, Aug. 16. Since then he has identified experience, and leadership of roughly 15 seniors as key strengths for his team. Last year the Bulldogs made it all the way to the Division 6 Super Bowl, losing to Stoneham High School. Guilbeault was previously an assistant coach for three years, and has taken over as head coach this year.

The Dartmouth team lost their first game of the season against Falmouth by a score of 35 to 14 on Sept. 6.

The newly renovated Memorial Stadium in Dartmouth features an artificial turf field, as well as new scoreboards and lighting. The Sept. 13 game against ORR will be the first football game held on the new field.

Organizers of Tri-town Unified Recreational Facilities, or T.U.R.F. attempted a similar renovation project for Old Rochester’s main football field that was ultimately turned down in a Rochester special election in July. The ORR renovation project would also have addressed issues with the track, and lighting for the theater department. 

Dartmouth’s home opener against the Bulldogs was originally scheduled for 7 p.m., but was moved earlier in the afternoon due to a Dartmouth Public Schools curfew being set for 5:30 p.m. for all outdoor activities due to concerns about mosquitoes potentially carrying the Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus.