Blue Hills coach Ed Madden likes to say the goal for the year is to play football in December.

For the third time in four years, the mission was accomplished.

The Warriors will look to defend their Small School Vocational Bowl title on Wednesday night when they host all-marbles Mayflower Athletic Conference foe Tri-County. Blue Hills (7-5) defeated Tri-County in the championship game a year ago and also defeated them in a regular-season contest in October.

“We love playing this game,” Madden said. “We get the opportunity to compete with professional teams that are similar to us. I’m really excited for this group of kids as we only returned three starters on offense and three on defense.

“Most of our freshmen were on the scout team last year, so they had to compete with our regular players. Competing against them every day helped them prepare for this year.”

Although Tri-County (7-4) lost to Blue Hills (24-14) in its first game, head coach Andy Gomes believes his team has developed some confidence to compete against the perennial MAC power.

“First of all, it’s very exciting and great to be able to get back into the bowl. Our kids bought in and did a great job,” Gomes said. “In the first game, I think dealing with their physicality definitely helped us. We were able to throw the ball at them, but we have to be able to run the ball against them a little bit.”

In the Large School Vocational Bowl, Bay Path (11-1) will look for a three-peat against Whittier (9-3) on Wednesday night (6:30 at Assumption). Everything you need to know about Bay Path can be found in the results (41 points per game).

“They’re a really good offensive team,” Whittier coach Kevin Bradley said. “Just look at their results, they score 30 to 40 points every game, they have two really good defenders (Kaiden Brochu and Bradyn Downes) and they are big. It’s a team that is definitely ready for the playoffs.”

Whittier reached the finals by surviving a 20-14 thrashing of fellow CAC Northeast Regional team in the semifinals. Noah Allen ran for 115 yards and scored three scores, and the defense managed to get to the goal line at the last minute to secure the win.

“We’ve gotten better every week,” Bradley said. “We simplified the game a little bit and the kids responded and played hard.”

Similar to Madden, Bay Path coach Cody Giampa says his team always takes great pride in reaching the professional bowl.

“This game is very important to them,” Giampa said. “We play against teams that have the same problems and logistical problems as us. The professional competition is for the kids and it’s nice to see how we compare to similar teams.”