Down Go the Champs
Two more defending champs fall on Friday of Week 2
Let's start with the Game of the Day.
Last year, Marshwood had Westbrook dead to rights in the playoffs, only to see Gio Staples rally the Blazes to a come-from-behind victory in the final minute. Westbrook, of course, would go on to win the whole thing and Marshwood had an entire offseason to be mad about it.
Well Friday night they pitched a shutout, picking off 4 Westbrook passes en route to a 8-0 slugfest at home to move to 2-0. After putting up 50 in Week 1, they picked up a win with only 8.
Good teams win in multiple ways, right?
Steve Craig was there.
Steve CraigStaff Writer
On the podcast this week, BL Lippert talked about trusting his new quarterback in a late-game situation against Fryeburg and it paid off with a touchdown pass in the final seconds to win the game.
This week, Drew Lindquist continued to excel--he threw three scores against Skowhegan--but Cony got a different test as the River Hawks erased a 21-point deficit in the second half and took the lead with 2;23 to play.
Lindquist wasn't fazed. He found Ian Lasselle on a deep ball to set up a Davis Noyes plunge from the 1 and Cony survived another wild finish to improve to 2-0.
At the Beach, OOB tried to give away their own 20+ point lead, but to Orono. Up 22-0 after three, the Gulls gave up 2 straight touchdowns to Richie Watson. Matthew Charron's second score stopped the bleeding and they held on for the win. Pier fries for everyone!
So far this week, 4 state champs have played. Three have lost and the 4th (TA) was tied at the half and needed 400 rushing yards to put away SoPo. Winthrop went to Freeport this week and put their 11-game winning streak on the line against the Falcons who were coming off a dominant Week 1 win. Winthrop had to feel like the football gods were looking down on them when they got an 80-yard TD from Porter Lavigne to Lucas Rice with 0.3 seconds left in the first half (they also connected on a 66-yard bomb), but Freeport scored with 2:27 left to get it within 1 and then played for the win at home.
“I did not want to extend this game, and when you have a chance to maybe close out a team like that, you go for it,” Freeport coach Paul St. Pierre said. “… If we didn’t make it, we still had a chance for our onside kick. Who knows? But when you have a chance to beat a team like that, you don’t mess around with it. You don’t risk overtime. You just take 2 yards and hope you can get in.”
They got it to escape with a win.
Jimmy James, in his first football season with Varsity Maine, was there for the gamer. He was also at the Greely/Leavitt game on Thursday. I'm not saying he's bad luck if you're a defending champ or you've got a winning streak going. But I'm not not saying that.
Jimmy JamesStaff Writer
I'll be doing color for LCTV's broadcasts of Medomak games. The Panthers moved the ball well in their first possession, but Jaydiin Ruiz was stopped at the goal line on 4th and goal. Wells answered with a 19 yard Noah McDonough scamper and led 14-0 at the half.
I was logging it in the app that's currently in beta.
In the third quarter, Medomak figured it out. Quarterback Will Trainor found some rushing lanes and hit Owen Harvey for a score to cut the lead to 6 as the Panthers' defense figured out how to contain McDonough (who was electric in the first half).
Medomak was driving for the tying score late when Jameson Russell picked off Trainor near the goal line and for the second week in a row, Wells survived thanks to some late defensive heroics.
Elsewhere
Landon Wyman caught 4 Lucas Davenport touchdown passes in Windham's win over Sanford...Sawyer Ramsdell scored 3 ways (rush, receiving, kick return) and Poland handled MCI...Alex Martin rushed for 2 scores as Portland blanked Scarborough...Lawrence's Keegan Littlefield and Jaiden Hebert ran all over Fryeburg to the tune of 256 yards and a couple scores...Estevao Lembissa ran for two touchdowns in Biddeford's win over Gorham....Dylan Root ran for 3 scores and tossed another one as Morse doubled up Dirigo.
Both of the 8-man champs will try to avoid succumbing to the fate of their brethren today. Camden moved up to 11-man and will host Mount Blue and Stearns heads north to Houlton to take on the Shires who lost last week to a Washington Academy that obliterated Dexter Friday.
Stearns also handled Dexter easily in Week 1 and should be ranked higher, but the quirks of the early rankings are working against them. The Model has this as Stearns by 3.5, but I suspect that's way too low.
The rest of the Model's picks for today's games are after the jump.