Nor'easters

The scheduling quirk gives Biddeford a rare shape of season: a Division III programme built around a single fixture that outweighs the conference table, played each year for a trophy shaped like a lobster trap.

The University of New England put the programme together in December 2014, and Mike Lichten arrived in February 2016 as the first head coach, a year and a half before anyone took the field. The Nor'easters played their first snaps in 2017 as a club side, then moved into NCAA Division III in 2018.

They play on blue turf at Blue Storm Stadium, a 1,600-seat ground in Biddeford that carries the same colour scheme as the team itself. Blue and white run through the programme end to end, home venue and jerseys alike.

Nothing in the record yet includes a conference title or a national championship; the Nor'easters remain a young programme still building a résumé inside the Conference of New England.

What the Nor'easters do have is Husson. The two meet annually for the Lobster Trap Game, the kind of fixture that means more to Biddeford than a league standing does — a rivalry named for the coast it's played on, and the one date on the schedule that needs no context for anyone in town.