Chaotic ride ends in league title for Panthers

LITTLETON — In the 2025 season finale, Ayer-Shirley/Bromfield upended Littleton High School with a pick-six interception in overtime, putting an exclamation point on a difficult year for the Tigers. Littleton finished 2-8, struggling to field a team for much of the season and closing the year with just 24 players.

Things only grew more uncertain for Littleton in the offseason. Once a proud program that captured six titles over the previous decade, including a perfect 2013 season that culminated in a state championship at Gillette Stadium, Tigers football could no longer stand on its own. With participation dwindling, the program needed a partner to survive.

Little did anyone know that the Thanksgiving Day visitors who had just delivered the final blow to Littleton's season would become its partner in revival.

The two schools began discussions in late fall, and on Jan. 21, 2026, the Shirley School Committee considered the proposed football cooperative, with Ayer-Shirley Regional serving as the host school. Offseason preparations soon followed, bringing together players from Ayer, Shirley, Littleton and Bromfield under one banner.

When the newly formed Panthers gathered for training camp, longtime coach Billy Wright described the early pairings as “clicky,” acknowledging that the group still had plenty of work ahead before it could become a cohesive football team. The talent, he believed, was there. So were the numbers. Nearly 50 players reported, representing the strongest combined turnout in years.

The team embraced all four communities in its identity, adopting the initials A.S.L.B. to represent Ayer, Shirley, Littleton and Bromfield.

Wright's assessment of the team's potential would eventually prove well-founded, though the road there was anything but smooth. The Panthers stumbled out of the gate with two consecutive losses before finding their footing and rattling off four straight victories. A subsequent loss to Worcester Tech dropped them to 4-3 and ended their hopes of reaching the MIAA playoffs. But there was still one prize left to claim: the Mid-Wach E League title.

Standing in their way was Murdock, a team equally determined to finish atop the league.

On a cold, blustery October night, with wind chills dipping into the low 40s, the Panthers returned to Littleton Middle School, the same grounds where the previous year's Thanksgiving meeting had taken place. This time, however, the home crowd was cheering them on. Littleton was hosting Senior Night, celebrating the Panthers' seniors, including several who had helped defeat the Tigers twice the previous season.

The irony wasn't lost on the significance of the moment. A program that had faced an uncertain future less than a year earlier was now celebrating a league championship opportunity alongside the very players who had once stood across the field.

The stakes were clear. A victory would give the Panthers the outright league championship in their first season as a cooperative. A loss would leave A.S.L.B. sharing the title with defending champion Lunenburg and Murdock. For a program still finding its identity, there was considerably more than bragging rights on the line.

The game itself offered little in the way of offensive fireworks.

Quarterback Jace Callahan and the Panthers struggled to find their rhythm, with multiple drives stalling inside the red zone. Callahan eventually broke through with an eight-yard scramble into the end zone, giving the hosts a 6-0 lead at halftime.

But drops, penalties and a stubborn Murdock defense continued to frustrate the Panthers. The Blue Devils, playing for a share of the league title themselves, refused to give ground.

Late in the third quarter, Murdock delivered the game's biggest blow to that point, stripping an A.S.L.B. ballcarrier in the backfield and returning the loose ball 46 yards for a touchdown. The score tied the game at six, where it remained through the end of regulation.

The drama intensified in overtime.

A.S.L.B.'s defense came up with two remarkable goal-line stands, holding the Blue Devils just two yards from the end zone on consecutive possessions. But Murdock finally broke through on its third opportunity, powering into the end zone in just two plays to take a 12-6 lead.

The Panthers were left with one final chance to save their season.

Callahan opened the possession with a two-yard keeper, bringing the ball to the eight-yard line. On second down, the junior signal-caller took the snap, drifted left and lofted a high-arcing pass toward Ryder McTurk.

McTurk hauled it in for the game-tying touchdown, redeeming himself after an earlier dropped pass that had the potential to produce a score.

“We ran two hitches and a corner, and they bit on it,” Wright said. “We got lucky.”

With the score knotted at 12, the Panthers faced a decision that would have been unthinkable for much of the season. They had elected to go for two following their touchdowns all year, never attempting a conventional extra point.

Now, with an outright league championship hanging in the balance, Wright turned to first-year kicker Erikson Levy, who had just returned from a two-week absence with a shoulder injury.

The operation rested in the hands of freshman long snapper Andrew Lynn and sophomore holder Collin Wright, a first-year football player. Three relatively inexperienced players would have to deliver the most important kick of the Panthers' inaugural season.

The snap was clean. The hold was true.

Levy drove a soaring kick toward the uprights, sending it just inside the left post. The ball sailed through, and pandemonium followed.

Players charged onto the field. Fans erupted, and the band blared as the Panthers celebrated a dramatic 13-12 triple-overtime victory and the Mid-Wach E League championship.

“That's the clutchest kick we've had in a long time,” said Wright, glancing over with a smile as fans circled around Levy to congratulate the placekicker on his make. “I'm so glad for him…the boys…everybody who came out to support us tonight. This was a special night.”

For Wright, the moment brought a welcome release after an emotionally exhausting contest. He walked slowly across the field, taking in the celebration and the culmination of a season that had tested his team's resolve from the outset.

“What a crazy game. Just absolute craziness,” Wright said. “We didn't play well offensively. The defense played their butts off all night. [Murdock] stifled us pretty well early on and that carried through for much of the game. We had some drops that could've led to big plays that hurt us. We had some injuries. But credit the kids; they just fought through the game.”

Wright was particularly proud of the defense, which repeatedly kept the Panthers alive when the offense struggled to generate points.

“The defense was unbelievable,” he said. “I can't believe those two goal-line stands in the first two overtimes, and just the game they played overall. Even the touchdown Murdock scored in regulation was on the defensive side of the ball. I'm so proud of my kids' effort and I hope they can build on it from here.”

Beyond the championship, the night represented something much larger for the newly combined program.

“It's a great thing to be atop this league,” Wright said. “We still have work to do to improve as a group, but I'm proud of the way we dealt with adversity tonight.”

He was equally appreciative of the support from the Littleton community, whose program had once been on the other side of the rivalry.

“It's really special to have this happen in front of the Littleton crowd,” Wright said. “The program is coming together. The first year there's always trials and tribulations. To the kids' credit, to the parents' credit, to the schools' credit, and to the three towns' credit, it's been incredible. I really can't believe how smooth the merger has gone. It's been incredible.”

After a season that began with questions about whether Littleton football could survive, the Panthers finished with something few could have envisioned when the two programs first came together: an outright league championship, earned together.