Week 9 Thoughts on the Weekend

November 4, 2024



Week 9 Thoughts on the Weekend

- This is the point in the season where a multitude of emotions start setting in. There is the culmination of 11 quick weeks to get to this point. The excitement of what is to be coming in the next few weeks. The anticipation of the holidays on the horizon. And, yes, the relief that the 2024 season is coming to its conclusion. And they all hit at the same time. Crazy times. But that is what makes this part of the most wonderful time of the sports season. It means so much to so many people.

- The first game of the weekend occurred on Thursday as Thornton Academy and Scarborough met in Saco. And like the other 18 regular season meeting, a run dating back to 2005, it was a Thornton Academy victory. Scarborough, try as hard as they could, just couldn’t keep their drives going even when they were well into the Golden Trojans half of the field. Two turnovers on downs, combined with turnovers, doomed the Red Storms chances to put a dent onto the Hill Stadium scoreboard. One of the star’s of the game would have to be Thornton Academy’s Wyatt Benoit. In a half of play Wyatt accounted for five of the seven first-half touchdowns while accumulating 329 yards of offense through the air and on the ground.

- Class A’s playoffs may not begin until next week. However, of the games on the schedule was as close to a playoff game as one could get with Bangor hosting Oxford Hills on Friday. Given the close Crabtree numbers for both sides and where Windham was at in the standings, the game was a win-and-you-are-in contest. Unlike last year’s game, where Oxford Hills’ 39-14 win knocked Bangor out of the playoffs, this time around it was Bangor that did the knocking out as their 20-6 victory punched their Class A playoff ticket while putting an end to the Vikings season. The Rams did so by relying almost exclusively on a run game that accounted for 301 of their 324 total yards. Quarterback Kyle Johnson and running back Eli Marsh each ran for over a hundred yards. They combined with Zac Cota to account for all three Bangor touchdowns. A 12-yard touchdown pass from Carter Wyman to Cameron Pulkkinen was Oxford Hills’ only points of the game.

- Portland rode a dominating ground game to defeat rival South Portland 39-21 in their annual Battle of the Bridge. Behind 332 rushing yards, 170 of which was from Cordell Jones, the Bulldogs exploded from a close 19-14 halftime score for three second-half touchdowns. Cordell ran for two of his three rushing touchdowns during the second half. He also scored on 65-yard catch-and-run from Louis Thurston in the first quarter. And while we are talking about Jones, he also picked off an Easton Healy pass in the game. The win for Portland kept the bridge blue for a fourth consecutive season.

- Windham held a lead for a good part of their game on Friday against Bonny Eagle, but in the end the Scots were able to get the points when it was needed as they run out a 30-28 victory on Friday. Windham had leads of 14-12 at the half and 21-18 in the third quarter before Bonny Eagle erupted for two second-half touchdowns to claim a 30-21 fourth quarter lead. Without quarterback Karl Longstreth, Windham was able to narrow the deficit on a David Daignault touchdown from the Bonny Eagle goal line with 3:44 to go in the game. The Scots almost extended the lead, but a long run was negated by a penalty. However, they continued to maintain possession to the final buzzer for the win.

- Marshwood’s 49-7 win over Cheverus on Friday put the Hawks into the Class B Southern regional semifinals. Their reward is an opponent they are quite familiar with. For the seventh time in 11 years the Hawks will meet Kennebunk in the playoffs. It is the 18th game between the two teams in that stretch. The Rams have won the last three games between two teams.

- Last year Messalonskee soared to a 7-1 record and a second place finish in Northern Class B. However, they were bounced out of the playoffs by Cony in their semifinal contest. The loss was their third consecutive playoff defeat. This season they struggled to a 3-5 finish and a road playoff game at Gardiner. The glimmer of hope for Messalonskee was that they beat the Tigers 13-6 in the regular season. With quarterback Tatum Doucette leading the way, offensively he had a hand in all four of Messalonskee’s touchdowns in the 27-6 win. Despite injuries and illnesses leaving the Eagles somewhat depleted, they rallied as a team to keep the game out of reach in multiple tough situations. While Gardiner gained 236 yards on offensive, finding the end zone was just something they could not do to put themselves back into the game.

- Lawrence rumbled their way to a 42-13 victory over Skowhegan on Friday. The win put the Bulldogs into the regional semifinals for the seventh consecutive season. For the third time in five seasons Lawrence will battle against Cony. Cony fans will remember what Lawrence did last year in the Northern Class B regional finals, a game that Lawrence won 27-7. Senior Colton Carter was a junior on that Bulldogs team. During the game he ran for a game-high 221 yards and three touchdowns. The winner of this game will meet the winner of Falmouth and Messalonskee.

- Massabesic will be going to their third consecutive regional semifinal game. However, unlike the prior two trips they had could not rely upon a first round bye to make the trip. This time around they earned that opportunity by beating Gorham 43-20. It was close for the first half of the game as the Mustangs took the initial lead and then held a 21-14 edge at the half before breaking it open in the second half. Defensively the Mustangs held Gorham to a hundred yards of offense while Cam Bouchard  and Jakob Tardiff had interceptions on defense. Cam Bradbury threw touchdowns to Kyle Abbott and Cade Nielson while also rushing for two touchdowns alongside Nolan Pomerleau’s two scores.

- Oceanside used an exclusive dose of the rushing game to defeat Hampden Academy 40-30 on Friday. Quarterback Zeb Foster and running back Robert Blais each ran for 200+ yards. The two also accounted for all of the Mariners 40 points. Foster scored all five touchdowns and four two-point conversions while Blais scored the other two-point conversion.

- For almost 47 minutes of the game between Freeport and Oak Hill, it was a close-fought back-and-forth game. Freeport would take a lead, Oak Hill would tie things up. This was the trend until Teddy Peters completed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Bed Bolduc with 3:20 remaining to put Freeport up 21-14. The rest of the big moments of the game belonged to Oak Hill as Braden Dubuc’s bomb of a pass found Isaac Graham for the touchdown with a little over a minute to go. Opting to go for the two-point conversion and the win, Dubuc found Kaiden Delano in the end zone for the 22-21 lead. Oak Hill then delivered the final big moment as Graham picked off a Peters’ pass that crushed final drive of the game for Freeport and clinched Oak Hill’s ticket for next week’s regional semifinal against Wells.

- Maine Central Institute and Old Town came into their regional quarterfinal game at different points of the season. The Huskies were on a three-game winning streak after starting the season 2-3. The Coyotes were on a three-game losing skid after starting the season 3-2. So how would this game turn out? It was definitely anything but expected as Old Town shut out the Huskies 30-0 to earn an upset victory for the second consecutive year – they beat third-seeded Belfast 14-12 as a sixth seeded team in the 2023 Northern D quarterfinal round. One of the noteworthy efforts was by Ben King. The diminutive junior recorded 11 tackles and four sacks on the evening.

- It has been a banner year for Dirigo in 2024. After starting the season with a 27-26 loss to Freeport, the Cougars have rattled win after win after win to finish third in a very tough Southern Class D. After defeated their western mountain rival Mountain Valley, the Cougars will travel to second-ranked Winthrop to take on the Ramblers. Despite being long-time regional rivals, you might be surprised to know that this is the first game between the two teams in eight years. Their last game was in the 2016 Southern Class D regional semifinal. That was a game the Ramblers won 38-8.

- Dash Farrell did plenty of dashing around for Mt. Ararat as his Eagles defeated Gray-New Gloucester 44-0. He ran for 303 yards, averaging a little over 15 yards a carry, and scored six touchdowns. The more impressive feature was the shutout held by Mt. Ararat against the ninth highest scoring 8 man offense in Maine. They held the Patriots passing game to just ten completed passes for 92 yards, numbers that were drastically different compared to the 303 yards and five touchdowns they passed for the previous week. The Eagles will play Camden Hills next week, a team they lost to 36-30 in week five.

- Stearns looked completed unfazed by the Ellsworth on Friday. The Eagles, missing quarterback Thomas Jude and running back Ripley Strout, were twice stopped in the first quarter and that was enough momentum for Stearns to overcome a sluggish start en route to a 28-0 halftime lead. Cameron Atkinson ran for four touchdowns while Lucas Pelkey ran for a touchdown and caught a second touchdown from Atkinson. The victory put Stearns into their fourth consecutive regional final, the most by any Maine 8 man team.

- It was a northern Maine shootout in Houlton as the Shiretowners hosted defending 8 man small school champion Orono on Friday. While Houlton’s Isaiah Ervin did not have much success through the air (6 for 12, 55 passing yards, 2 interceptions), the fact is he didn’t need to live or die by the pass as he ran for 487 yards and scored seven touchdowns that helped carry Houlton to a 56-50 win over the Red Riots. Defensively the team got tackles for losses by Gage Folsom (2), Ervin (1), Hunter Sanford (1), and Jacob Watson (1). Sam Boone and Folsom each had ten tackles. Boone also had an interception on defense while Watson recorded a fumble. The win puts Houlton into their first ever football regional final.

- Another team going to their first ever football regional final is Sacopee Valley. They earned their hard-fought ticket with a 42-28 road win at Livermore Falls against Spruce Mountain. While Sacopee Valley held a 22-6 halftime lead, the Phoenix came within two points in the third quarter before the Hawks scored two late touchdowns to put the game out of reach. The Hawks will hope for a bit of this magic to carry over to their regional final game, where they face off against top-ranked Old Orchard Beach. The Seagulls earned their trip with a 58-6 win over Boothbay. Sacopee Valley will want to ignore the results of the last five meetings with the Seagulls and instead focus on the sixth. That happened to be back in 2019, a game that Sacopee Valley won during the inaugural 8 man season by a 42-15 score.

- Saturday’s three games all went according to the seeding script as higher seeded Nokomis, Winslow, and John Bapst won their afternoon games. Nokomis will make the trip to Waldoboro to play Medomak Valley. The Warriors will be hoping to bring a halt to their six-game losing streak in games against the Panthers. Nokomis’ last win over them was in the 2018 regional quarterfinals. That was the year that Nokomis won the Class C state championship. Winslow and John Bapst will play next Saturday as the Black Raiders will host the Crusaders. The winner goes on to the Northern Class D regional final.

- There was a state championship decided on Saturday. The Maine Independent Football League held their league championship at the University of Maine. The Aroostook Silver Huskies took on the Central Maine Eagles in the afternoon game. After falling behind 22-6 at the end of the first quarter, it was all Silver Huskies as Presque Isle senior Dean Wilkinson ran for over 500 yards and scored nine touchdowns. Aroostook went on to win by the score of 74-28.

- On Monday we shared the findings of a weeks-long investigation into alleged hazing by members of the Lisbon Greyhounds high school team during the season. Plenty has been said in the aftermath of the decision. We are not here to add anything further to that end. However, what we do have to add is something that we did not weigh in on at the time, which was our decision to post any and all updates during the past four weeks about the investigation. We have plenty of experience in posting controversial articles or opinions. Seven years ago we posted and shared information regarding a report of cultural insensitivity at Wells football games. We passed along multiple school and MPA reports during the cancelled 2020 season regarding COVID. We stood up for our observations of where the Cheverus program was during the 2021 season. We shared articles and Brunswick school press releases during the investigation into their pre-season camp-hazing incident. And throughout our existence we have passed along articles that put football into a less-than-flattering light through stories and articles of fights, suspensions, bannings, terminations, and other national articles and stories.

We share what we do because it is our perceived view that our websites, our information, our presence adds to and helps contribute to the state of football in Maine. That perceived view might be just that – perceived. We fully accepted a long time ago that in the grand scheme of all things sports media in Maine, we are as distant to the back of the pack as it can get. And yet despite that reality it continues to remain our goal to keep folks educated to the world of football both here in Maine, as well as the sport as it exists outside of its borders.

That is not always going to be viewed as we view it. Which is fine. But it will in no way deter or dissuade how we will continue to operate.

- Out of state tracker
Bedford defeated Keene 28-0 on Friday. The Bulldogs finished the season 9-0.
Dover lost 28-21 to Winnacunnet on Friday. The Green Wave finished the season 3-6.
Exeter defeated Londonderry 21-10 on Friday. The Blue Hawks finished the season 9-0.
Hillsboro-Deering lost 20-12 to Raymond on Saturday. The Hill-Cats finished the season 4-4.
Portsmouth-Oyster River defeated Spaulding 34-6 on Friday. The ClipperCats finished the season 1-8. 
Salem lost 33-0 to Swampscott on Friday. The Witches finished the season 3-5.
Spaulding lost 34-6 to Portsmouth-Oyster River on Friday. The Red Raiders finished the season 2-7.
Winnacunnet defeated Dover 28-21 on Friday. The Warriors finished the season 5-4.

- Quote of the week
"Last week, we went home to Ellsworth with our pride not intact. (Tonight) we have our pride intact. We came out and battled."
Dave Svec, Ellsworth head coach

- Streak tracker
There are 5 unbeaten teams in Maine, which is unchanged from last week
2 teams had their winning streaks of 4 or more games snapped: Freeport (4) and Spruce Mountain (4)
The longest active winning streaks belong to Kennebunk (12), Wells (11), Falmouth (9), Foxcroft Academy (9), and Old Orchard Beach (9)

- Five games of interest to us in week ten
Noble at Bonny Eagle
Lawrence at Cony
Massabesic at Deering
Dirigo at Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale
Mt. Ararat at Camden Hills

What are your thoughts on the weekend?