DURHAM, N.H. — Cam Shorey chose to play football at New Hampshire partly because of an offense that allowed the tight ends to catch a lot of passes.

Those dreams of end zone glory were quickly dashed when the Calais native was switched to defensive end.

Shorey, now a junior, has become a playmaker anyway. He started all 11 games for the Wildcats this season, and came up with five tackles, including 2.5 for loss, plus a forced fumble in Saturday’s 22-6 victory over Maine. He has 40 tackles, 12.5 for loss, this season.

“I’m not going to lie, I was a little bummed when they made the decision to put me on defense,” Shorey said after playing sparingly his first two seasons. “But I really like it.

“The pass rush, there’s a lot of technique to it and I just wasn’t very proficient at it last year. Getting off the line, reading the tackle, fighting with your hands. A lot of people think that the fastest guy’s going to get to the quarterback, but there’s a lot more to it.”

Shorey, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, had a recruiting visit scheduled to Maine the week after his trip to New Hampshire. He never made it to Orono.

“I fell in love with it here,” he said. “It didn’t seem like I was going to find a better option. Zero regrets about coming here.”

Even if he was forced to make his mark on defense, on a team noted for its offense. He did score a touchdown on a fumble return against Rhode Island when he was a freshman.

“When you play defense, you sign up for that,” said Shorey, who played for Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire. “You play hard, you work hard. The offense gets the pictures and stuff, and that’s fine with us, as long as we’re winning football games.”

IN THE last game of his Maine career, wide receiver John Hardy caught his first touchdown pass Saturday. It came early in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Dan Collins saw him in the back of the end zone in double coverage, but threw a high pass in a spot that only Hardy could come down with it.

Hardy did, just inside the end line.

“I just tried to catch the ball and drop my body as fast as I could. I knew I was close, but Dan put it in a great spot and it was a good play overall,” said Hardy, a Portland native.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Obviously to me it means a lot, but it would have been a lot better if we’d come out with a win.”

Hardy finished with five catches for 56 yards in his best game as a Black Bear.

“I’ve played football my whole life,” he said. “To go out like this is tough.”

MAINE WAS without offensive linemen Daniel Burrows and Jamil Demby, cornerback Najee Goode and place-kicker Sean Decloux, all of them injured. In the first half, linebacker John McCabe and safety Jeffrey DeVaughn went out with ankle injuries and didn’t return. … Black Bear linebacker Cabrinni Goncalves had a first-half interception Saturday. He also had two against the Wildcats last season, meaning three of his four career picks came against Maine’s biggest rival. …. New Hampshire tailback Donald Goodrich, a sophomore who played at Cheverus High, carried the ball two times for 8 yards, giving him 110 for the season.