8-Man Gold Ball Saturday

At the beginning of the season, the consensus around the state was that Cordell Jones would be the Fitzy winner. After all, if you win Gatorade POTY as a Junior, you usually win the Senior career award of your sport (see also: Maddie Fitzpatrick). But things haven't gone smoothly for the Bulldogs in their title defense and the emergence of talents like Connor Ayoob and Parker Morin, among others, have made it a real discussion.

On Friday night, Cordell Jones made his strongest statement yet.

Let's go to Fitzpatrick Stadium, the site of the Model's Game of the Day between Portland and Bangor--a pick 'em (!?!).

The first half was a defensive struggle. Bangor stopped Portland on 4th and Goal from the 4 on their first drive and really struggled to move the ball on their end. Portland finally broke through late in the first half when Jones found Alex Martins for 34 yards to give Portland a 10-0 lead at the half.

Bangor finally got moving in the second half. Kyle Johnson did his best Drake Maye impression with a jump pass touchdown to Will Houghton to get them on the board and then hit Gavin Glanville-True from 45 to give Bangor the lead. Jones danced down the sideline to get the lead back. Johnson threw another deep ball to Houghton to set up a 1 yard TD and Bangor led 22-16 with 11 minutes to go.

And then Cordell Jones fully took over. He led Portland down the field and rushed it in from 8 to take a 1-point lead, came up with a pick on Bangor's next possession, then scored another touchdown to make the lead 8. Bangor had one more chance, but Portland's defensive line came up huge on 3 straight plays and Portland escaped with a 30-22.

I spoke the Jones after the game.

Drew Bonifant was there to cover it for Varsity Maine.

Portland football outlasts Bangor to return to Class A title game

Cordell Jones runs for three second-half touchdowns, leading the Bulldogs to their fourth straight state championship game.

The Portland Press HeraldDrew Bonifant

The other big game was in Class B, where Westbrook was going for their first ever Regional Title in football. One of the big questions on the podcast was how Westbrook would handle the bright lights. Whenever a program is playing for the first time in a game where you can put a trophy in the case, you have to wonder how they'll respond.

They responded.

Westbrook led 14-7 at the half, but Kennebunk responded with a big play, a 61 yard strike from Sam Matthews to Jaiden Homa to tie the score. Westbrook scored twice and then after an Austin West touchdown, well, let's go to Steve Craig's gamer:

The play of the game came with under six minutes remaining and Westbrook leading 27-20, looking for a two-score lead. On a second-and-7 from the Kennebunk 10, Westbrook running back Cole Tanner fumbled. Kennebunk’s Jaiden Homa scooped the ball up and looked like he might be able to return it for a touchdown. But as Homa tried to set up some blocking, Westbrook tight end Owen Taylor came from behind and knocked the ball loose, and Adrian Anderson recovered for Westbrook at the Kennebunk 41.

Westbrook forced 3 fumbles in the game and held on for a 34-27 win and their first Regional Title in football.

Michael Hoffer was also there with a 5,000 word write-up.

Westbrook continues fairy tale run with regional final win over Kennebunk

WESTBROOK—You can no longer call Westbrook’s football team a Cinderella. Now, you can call the long downtrodden Blue Blazes something much, much better. Regional champions. Friday evening, at a packed Olmsted Field, Westbrook continued the greatest season in program history with its biggest victory to date. Over reigning regional

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

You gotta love it.

They'll play Cony, who continued their demolition tour of B North with a 40-7 win over Fryeburg (Morin 3 passing TD, 2 rush).

In Cumberland, Noah Allen ran for three scores and Luke Piper threw for 3 as Greely stayed unbeaten in a rout of Wells. They'll face the winner of today's Leavitt/Hermon game.

And Winthrop ended Morse's Cinderella run by out-scoring the Shipbuilders 27-0 in the second half.

I just want to point out that I was very much not a fan of Dallas getting Cooper. This is from May.

I 100% think Cooper can overcome this.

And I hope this pushes him to the Celtics when he's a free agent.

Game of the Day

I know what you're thinking: Thornton Academy vs. Bonny Eagle II: Electric Boogaloo. And I don't disagree. If Bonny Eagle can clean up their mistakes from a couple of weeks ago, they can absolutely win that game.

But a major tenet of the Stax Index--the number in [brackets] I use to determine the Game of the Day--is that high scoring games are more fun to watch than low scoring games. 51-42 is way more fun than 3-0.

Let's go to the 8-Man State Championships.

Old Orchard Beach is the standard-bearer in 8-Man. Dean Plante's squad has absolutely dominated 8-Man Small the last couple of years. They lead the state in scoring offense (56.7) and are 4th in scoring differential at +330 (Cony leads at +410). The offense is so prolific that when earlier this year I heard they were ahead 32-0, I said, "oh that's not so bad". It was still the first quarter.

Earlier this year, Stearns (4th in scoring at 48.2) hung with the Tasmanian Devil that is the OOB offense (Taz was a huge star in the 90's. Ask your parents.) for a while, only trailing by 2 at the half. If they can put together two of those halves, they've got a shot. The final score might be 60-56, but they've got a shot.

The Model says OOB by 11.1.

Either way, there will be a lot of touchdowns. And you get the 8-Man Large game between Spruce and Camden.

I'll be there. Say hi!

The rest of the Model's picks for today's games are after the jump.