- Things are starting to move around in the season now. This week though, what a crazy week it was. It goes to show that 2024 isn’t the sort of easily predictable season it was envisioned back in the pre-season. Which is always a good thing. For the reporters and the analysts out there this gives a new prism to need to look at games, regions, classes, and the state as a whole.

- Three coaches reached significant milestones this weekend. Alex Rotsko, having leadLongmeadown, Massachusetts and now Marshwood as a 32-year high school head coach, coached his 350th game on Friday. Aaron Filieo, South Portland’s head coach and prior to that the head coach of Cape Elizabeth, coached his 200th game on Friday. And on Saturday, Foxcroft Academy alum and head coach Danny White coached his 150th game.

- Tyler Easterbrooks had himself quite the evening Thursday during Sacopee Valley’s 60-22 win over Boothbay. He accumulated 369 yards of offense and five touchdowns for the Hawks while also scoring or having a hand in the scoring on six two-point conversions. While Sacopee Valley did not gain or lose any places in the 8 Man Small School South region, they did further solidify their hold on third place.

- Friday night had seven early evening games. These early contests always help to shake up the flood of contests that come in on the night.

- For a third straight week the Deering Rams only surrendered a touchdown as they defeated Leavitt 35-6. It is the second straight season that they have started 3-0 out of the gates. It was a close contest in the first half as the Rams only held a 14-0 lead. That changed in the second half as they got three scores to put the game out of reach. Quarterback Tavian Lauture threw and ran for two scores each.

- It was a high-scoring affair in Kennebunk as the Rams hosted Marshwood. And what is great about these two is that their contests have been closely fought games. Three of their last four meetings have only been decided by a touchdown or less. The Rams held a 15-7 lead at the hand, although the Hawks made a game of things by outscoring Kennebunk 22-14 to force the game into overtime. The Hawks had the opening possession and while they scored the touchdown, their two-point conversion attempt was not successful. The Rams also scored on their overtime possession. However, a Marshwood penalty bumped the ball up to the one yard line. Kennebunk opted to go for the two-point conversion and would scored to win the game 37-35.

- Biddeford snapped a seven-game regional losing streak when they defeated Gorham 21-14 on Friday. The Tigers took their early lead by way of two touchdowns from Travis Edgerton before the Rams responded in the third quarter. Kelly O’Guin’s second touchdown of the night restored the Tigers two-score lead before Garrett Poulin’s quarterback keeper and the Rams two-point conversion made it a seven point contest with less than two minutes in the game. The Tigers would recover the kick and ran out the clock for the home win.

- Oceanside’s trip to York on Friday made for a happy return to Rockland as the Mariners held on to the very held for a 40-35 victory. York took the early 7-0 lead on the third of three touchdowns by Peter Martin. The Mariners would fight back at the half to lead 28-21. The game ended in an exciting manner for one team, not so much for the other, as the Mariners stopped York on the final play of the game, making last tackle just a yard shy of the goal line to walk away with the 40-35 win.

- For just the second time fifteen years, Massabesic has started a season 3-0. The Mustangs traveled to their former longtime rival Sanford in the Battle of the Ridge. Time has tempered what use to be a heated rivalry (their 2013 game featured an unsubstantiated threat of violence, while a gift-wrapped sex toy was left outside the Massabesic athletic director’s office in the lead-up to the game). The two teams use to meet annually in the Southern/Western Class A. They have only played twice in the last six years. Despite the game, the contest was just as closely contested as a person might ask for. It was Massabesic that grinded out a gritty, hard-fought 14-0 win over the Spartans.

- Wins by Deering, Kennebunk, and Massabesic has created a three-way tie in Southern Class B. All three of the teams hold a 3-0 record. As they have not played one-another, they all have an unblemished regional record, and they all have an identical overall record, we go to the fourth tiebreaker of Heal Points. Yeah, you read that right. Without breaking down the math (we used 70 points for a Class A win, 60 points for a Class B win, and 50 points for a Class C win) we end up with Deering in first at 26.5625, Massabesic in second at 13.4375, and Kennebunk at 11.8750.

- Last week we stated that Falmouth was the last remaining football team in Maine to not have allowed a point. They brought that bit of significance into their Friday game against top-ranked Cony in a battle of Northern Class B unbeaten teams. The Navigators served up a lesson to the state that they are not just a flash in the pan as they defeated the Rams 21-7. Falmouth took an early 7-0. That lead increased in the third quarter when the Navigator’s Ben Robbins picked off a pass that went off the finger tips of Cony wide receiver Anderson St. Onge and returned it 65 yards for the score. Cony made things close in the final minutes of the game, but Falmouth recovered an onside kick attempt and scored in a little under two minutes to restore the eventual two-score lead. Falmouth is 3-0 for the first time since 2015. The loss dropped Cony into second place.

- Wells has now won eight straight regional games with their 54-6 win against Lisbon on Friday. Dom Buxton exploded for four touchdowns for the Warriors. Defensively, Wells is ranked second in the state in fewest points allowed.

- Lewiston looked a little rusty at times on Friday as they took on the home standing Bangor Rams at Cameron Stadium. The Blue Devils suffered four fumbles in Rams territory during the game, one of which was right at the Bangor half yard line. They were able to make things even with the tying 7-7 score on the final play of the first half after Bangor had the opening score of the game. That set up a memorable finish where some back-and-forth set the stage for a game-winning 37-yard field goal by Michael Caron to give Lewiston the 10-7 win.

- It’s been rough for Edward Little over the last three wins. Since a 22-20 win over Brewer on September 16th, 2022, the results have all been against the Red Eddies. They pulled the weight of a 17-game losing streak, the second longest in the state, into their home game against Messalonskee on Friday. Things appeared different however. They held the Eagles to a 12-12 halftime tie before quarterback TJ Kramarz scored three touchdowns and 22 points in the second half, the final touchdown happening with 41 and a half seconds in the game, to help lead Edward Little to a 36-34 victory. The win is the first for the football team at the new school campus field.

- Bonny Eagle held their ground in the fourth quarter, turning away three Portland drives to hold on for a 14-8 Scots victory. Things looked iffy for Portland early on after they went behind 14-0 with Bonny Eagle scoring on their first two drives of the game. The Bulldogs would tighten down the rest of the way, although their first score wouldn’t happen until the second quarter when Cordell Jones caught a seven-yard Louis Thurston touchdown. The Portland loss, coupled with the Lewiston win, flipped the two teams in the Northern Class A standings for first and second place. The Bonny Eagle win moved them up a spot into fourth place in Southern Class A.

- Hampden Academy and Hermon’s game was well worth the price of admission. And it was a gripping game to the very end as Hermon literally stole the show at the finish for a 22-21 win over the Broncos. Hampden Academy erased a 14-7 halftime deficit and turned it into a 21-14 lead with two touchdowns going into the fourth quarter. Hampden Academy made a fourth down stand to force a turnover on downs halfway through the final quarter. However, they were unable to gain any further advantage and were forced to put away to Hermon. Starting at their 7-yard line with 2:56 to play, the Hawks scored a little over a minute later and got the two-point conversion to take the one-point lead. On the Broncos last drive a Hawks defender would pick off the Hampden Academy pass to crush any hopes of last minute heroics by the home side.

- The Hawks win over Hampden Academy, along with a 28-13 Medomak Valley win over Brewer, and taking into consideration the win by Oceanside, created a four-way tie at the top of Northern Class C. Four teams in the region finished the weekend at 2-1. The Crabtree rankings favored Oceanside, who had the strength of schedule advantage over Hermon for first place. Medomak Valley meanwhile edged out Hampden Academy for third place by way of the second tiebreaker of regional record. The Panthers are 2-1 in regional contests while the Broncos are 1-1.

- In stark contrast to the North, Southern Class C has a four-way tie at the bottom of standings at 1-2. It is a varied amount of Crabtree points that separate Leavitt (95.833) from Cape Elizabeth (75.000).

- After Dirigo held out last week in their win over Oak Hill, this week they turned in a heck of a comeback effort to beat regional rival Mountain Valley 43-22. The Falcons at one point had a 22-14 lead before the Cougars fired away with 29 consecutive points. In that span Hudson Lufkin ran for a touchdown and threw one to Dakota White while Owen Smith ran for a touchdown and Nathaniel Wainwright ran down scores to account for the point production. Dirigo has won four of their last five games against Mountain Valley.

- Oak Hill’s Kaiden Delano was all over the field for the Raiders in their 35-22 win at Poland. In addition to running for 280 yards, he also scored four times and had 11 tackles and a sack. Their win put them into a slight edge over Dirigo for third place in Southern Class D.

- Things have looked more down than up as of late for Madison. After a great run of form from 2015 to 2018 that saw the Bulldogs go to three consecutive regional semifinal games and appear in the 2017 Southern Class D regional final, they have struggled to meet half of that success. Coming into Friday night’s home game against Belfast they were the holders of the state’s longest losing streak at 18. The key word in that sentence is “were”. On a night were the longest losing streak in Texas ended, so did the longest losing streak in Maine as Madison beat the Lions 13-0. The win was the first for Madison since they defeated Hampden Academy 16-14 back on September 2nd, 2022.

- A highly anticipated 8 man showdown happened in Topsham as the Eagles hosted the defending small school champion Orono. The game featured the prolific offensive threat from the North against the dominating ground game from the South. And on this night it was the ground game that dominated as the Eagle celebrated a 56-26 win that brought to a close the longest active winning streak in the state held by the Red Riots. The Mt. Ararat backfield duo of Nick Farrell and Dash Farrell combined for 408 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, six of which were scored by Farrell, as they executed a time-killing ball control offense to a T. Orono was forced to play the role of the comeback kids all night long. Will had what was normally be a great night for a wide receiver, catching 11 passes for 250 yards and scoring three touchdowns, with a kickoff return, but the offense just wasn’t enough to match the Eagles, nor could their defense hold them back.

- Greely’s 42-40 comeback win against Stearns might now have been something the Minutemen faithful wanted to see happen, but the Rangers were resilient to the very finish. Coming out of the first half down 24-14, and then down 32-14 at the end of the third quarter, Greely scored four touchdowns to Stearns’ one in the fourth quarter and then picked off a Minutemen pass with less than 20 seconds in the game to take the victory.

- The magical Ellsworth start to 2024 continued on as the Eagles defeated Mount View in a 76-0 rout at home on Friday. The win is the biggest in the history of the 13-year program and is the second largest margin of victory in a Maine 8 man game since its inception in 2019. With losses by Orono and Stearns, Ellsworth moved up to second place in the small school North region. Houlton took possession of first following their 65-6 win at home against Washington Academy.

- Thornton Academy so far is 0-3 in their out-of-state games against the Bedford Bulldogs of New Hampshire. The Golden Trojans are now 3-0 in games against opponents the week after playing Bedford. With a 2022 15-13 win over Kennebunk and a 2023 50-7 win against Scarborough, you can include Saturday’s 54-14 drubbing of Windham to that run. The closest the Eagles got was a one-point deficit in the first quarter after scoring on their first drive of the game following Thornton Academy’s opening drive score. From there it was 47 consecutive Golden Trojans points before Windham scored the final points of the game.

- A Saturday afternoon match-up of the two undefeated teams in Northern Class D was entirely one-sided as Foxcroft Academy cruised to a 35-3 win against Winslow on Saturday. Since the move back to two regions in Class D in 2023, Foxcroft Academy has now won all 13 of their contests over regional opponents. That 13-0 mark is tied with Old Orchard Beach (13-0) for the most regional wins of any team in Maine in the last two years.

- Camden Hills continued to make it difficult for opposing teams to score. The Windjammers 41-8 win at Waterville put them into 3-0 in the large school class and gives them the fewest points against in all of 8 man as well as the third fewest in the state.

- This is that time of the season where there are enough games played to get a handle of how tough schedules have been for a team. The Crabtree rankings make this easy. All one has to do is remove the record component for the team we are looking at and we can evaluate their strength of schedule. With creative scheduling, it has given teams the ability to not rely upon round-robin scheduling for its contests. Teams can add anywhere from one to three out-of-region games to their schedule. This adds lots of variation to the rankings. Some regions appear to be very competitive, others not so much.

Before diving into this, this will not be flattering to some. We get it. Teams play the schedule they are given. It is unfair to paint those in a negative light. But looking into the numbers can do that. Life isn’t always going to give everyone sunshine and rainbows. So please before some of you start typing, just remember that what you read isn’t going to do change or add anything to what is already there.

The numbers indicate the teams with the toughest schedule thus far belong to Bangor, Boothbay, Freeport, and Morse. Their opponents have a combined record of 31-4. Those four teams have a combined record of 1-11.

The team with the toughest schedule this season belongs to Waterville. Their eight-game schedule has opponents with an average winning percentage of 75%. If you need something simple to understand that, picture them playing eight opponents that have a 3-1 record. No small task. After the Purple Panthers comes Gorham, Leavitt, and Yarmouth. Each of the opponents on their schedule has an average winning percentage of 62.5%.

So we’ve looked at the toughest schedules. What about the opposite end of the spectrum? Who has not had the toughest schedule?

The answer to that question is Old Orchard Beach and Spruce Mountain. Their six combined opponents have yet to win a game this season. That is an 0-18 record the two undefeated teams have faced against this season. They are the only two teams in the state we might add and they happen to be in the same region. Next up is Ellsworth, Kennebunk, and South Portland. Their combined opponents record is 3-21. Behind them is Camden Hills and Portland. And last amongst the eight that jumped out was Mattanawcook Academy.

How about the entire season schedule you might ask? That belongs to Old Orchard Beach. Their season schedule has opponents with a combined record of 4-20. Next is Spruce Mountain (6-18), Ellsworth (7-17), and Edward Little (9-14).

- Out of state tracker
Bedford defeated Bishop Guertin 35-13 on Saturday. The 3-0 Bulldogs will host 1-2 Goffstown on Friday.
Dover lost 63-13 to Salem on Friday. The 0-3 Green Wave will travel to Plaistow on Saturday to play 0-3 Timberlane.
Exeter beat Portsmouth-Oyster River 40-7 on Saturday. The 3-0 Blue Hawks will travel to Hampton on Friday to play 3-0 Winnacunnet.
Hillsboro-Deering defeated Franklin 20-14 on Saturday. The 2-1 HillCats will travel to Canaan on Saturday to play 1-1 Mascoma Valley.
Portsmouth-Oyster River lost 40-7 to Exeter on Saturday. The 0-3 ClipperCats will host 2-1 Manchester Memorial on Friday.
Salem defeated Greater Lawrence Tech 50-41 on Friday. The 2-1 Witches have a bye this weekend.
Spaulding lost 21-14 to Manchester Memorial on Saturday. The 0-3 Red Raiders will host 1-2 Edward Little on Friday.
Winnacunnet defeated Manchester Central 21-13 on Friday. The 3-0 Warriors will host 3-0 Exeter on Friday.

- Quote of the week
"I’m here all game. If you want to beat us, you’ve got to beat me for all four quarters. I’m coming full speed every single time, so you better be ready."
Dash Farrell, Mt. Ararat running back

- Streak tracker
There are 17 unbeaten teams in Maine, down from 23 last week
1 team had their winning streak of 4 or more games snapped: Orono (12)
The longest active winning streaks belong to Kennebunk (7), Wells (6), and Falmouth (4)
2 teams ended their losing streaks of 4 or more games: Madison (18) and Edward Little (17)
The longest active losing streaks belong to Valley (17), Mount View (16), Poland (8), and Boothbay (6)

- First place teams after week three
Class A North – Lewiston (change from last week)
Class A South – Noble (no change)
Class B North – Falmouth (change from last week)
Class B South – Deering (no change)
Class C North – Oceanside (change from last week)
Class C South – Fryeburg Academy (no change)
Class D North – Foxcroft Academy (no change)
Class D South – Wells (no change)
8 Man Large School – Camden Hills (change from last week) 
8 Man Small School North – Houlton (change from last week)
8 Man Small School South – Spruce Mountain (no change)

- Five games of interest to us in week four
Fryeburg Academy at Falmouth
Deering at Massabesic
Spruce Mountain at Lake Region
Ellsworth at Houlton
Bonny Eagle at Thornton Academy

What are your thoughts on the weekend?