Merrimack Football Kicks Off 2011 Season Tonight

College football is back in North Andover.

Tonight at 7 p.m., hosts Worcester Polytechnich Institute.

The Warriors finished 4-6 last season, ranked fifth in the Northeast-10 Conference.

This year, the  out of nine teams in the conference's annual preseason coaches poll. 

Merrimack head coach John Perry is in his fourth year as Merrimack's head coach and has a 17-13 career record with the team. Perry  is the brother of Andover High School football coach E.J. Perry. 

Perry is only two years removed from winning the Northeast-10 Championship back in 2009. 

The team runs an exciting shotgun, no-huddle offense. Their defense is a 3-4 base.

The 3-4 defense is looking to improve after allowing an average of 34.7 points per game last season. The offense was high-scoring and averaged 34.8 points per game. 

Merrimack is led by its three captains, Tony Johnson, Shawn Loiseau, and James Suozzo. Johnson and Loiseau are linebackers, and .

Suozzo is the squad's quarterback and begins the season approaching almost all of Merrimack's quarterback school records. With a solid season he should break records for touchdowns, passing yards, completions, and passing attempts in a career.

Tune in to Patch tomorrow morning for coverage of tonight's season opener. 

This will be Merrimack's first ever game against WPI.