Medomak Stays Alive
The Panthers rally late to keep their playoff hopes intact
Class C has been an adventure ever since it went region-less last year. There's something about the full table that adds a level of chaos. Maybe it's that there's more playoff spots to work with. Maybe it's that you don't get a region where 6 teams get in and the 7th goes 0-8. Either way, there's going to be a good football team in C that doesn't make the playoffs.
After the first 5 weeks of the season, it looked like Medomak Valley might be that team. They'd played the hardest schedule in the state outside of class A – partly with their quarterback in the concussion protocol – and while it was clear they weren't one of the top tier teams in C, the theory was they weren't one of the cellar-dwellers either. But they'd dug themselves a hole and would need to run the table to have a realistic shot at the playoffs.
Gardiner started well. Justin Doody scored from 1 and 8 to give the Tigers a 14-6 lead at the half. In the first drive of the 4th quarter, with Gardiner facing a 3rd and 1 near midfield, Jaydiin Ruiz blew through the line and tackled Doody for a 5 yard loss, forcing a punt. Ruiz then broke 3 different runs for 80 yards (he had 212 on the day) and Medomak QB Will Trainor scored from 4 in his first game back from the concussion to tie the game. Gardiner got flagged a couple times in the next drive and had to punt again.
On third and long with under 2 to play, Trainor threw up what could generously be called a lame duck of a pass, but Owen Harvey came out of nowhere to make the catch and extend the drive. Trainor's second touchdown of the game gave Medomak their first lead with 19.6 to play and the Panthers are still alive in class C.
You can check out the box score on the game page on the site.
You can pull up the game page for any game on the schedule in any sport.
The big game Saturday was the battle for the 1 seed in A North between Oxford Hills and Portland. After a scoreless first quarter, the Vikings took off. Keegan Ridley broke open the scoring with a rushing TD and added 2 interceptions on defense.
The consensus was this game could go either way. The Model had Portland by 6. A lot of people picked Oxford Hills. I don't think anyone had a 29-0 shutout in either direction, but that's what we got and now Oxford Hills has a firm grasp on the 1 seed.
Jimmy James was there.
Jimmy JamesStaff Writer
Speaking of Jimmy James, he's the guest on this week's Overreactions podcast.
Jimmy isn't just named after one of the great sitcom characters of all time. He's also one of the newest reporters at Varsity Maine and now 7 weeks into his first Maine football season. So he's been around long enough to get the lay of the land, but is still new enough to have a fresh perspective.
By now you know the drill of the Overreactions Podcasts.
Thanks to a little birdie who showed up in my inbox, we have our first look at the new floor at the Augusta Civic Center.
It's not red!
One thing I've heard is that rather than the temporary tourney floor of the past, it's just one permanent floor. As you can also see from the photo, the Hammond Lumber and Skowhegan Savings logos are painted on and not the previous stickers or decals or whatever it is they affixed to the floor in the past that had some issues with grip last year.
I have mixed thoughts on this. It's a needed change, but it feels a little generic and that logo gives me AI vibes. It doesn't have the character of the previous floor, but I guess we'll get used to it.
Will Davies is off to a great start in his first season at Vermont after spending the last two at Saint Anselm. He had 24 points on 10/16 shooting in an exhibition win over Holy Cross.
Will Davies lead the way for Vermont in their first exhibition of the season, beating Holy Cross 90-80. Davies is the Morgan Stanley Player of the Game! pic.twitter.com/8iNbKiDaVP
— Brian McLaughlin (@bp3mclaughlin) October 17, 2026
I don't normally spend a lot of time on conference championship games. They used to be included in the Model--all the way back in the early days--but I was convinced out of it by multiple coaches. Most conferences don't even bother with a championship game anymore, but the KVAC is doing something a bit different for volleyball: a whole bracket. Rather than a championship game, it's a 4 team tournament at Cony.
Seems like it could be fun.
Ben Simmons (remember him?) tore his achilles yesterday on the same day that his "comeback documentary" came out, which I assume is just a collection of the annual clips of him pretending to work on his jump shot.
The news of the injury was immediately met with a flood of NBA writers falling over themselves to outdo each other over how tragic it is, but did you actually think for one second that he would play meaningful minutes in the NBA ever again? Of course you didn't. No reasonable person did. Unless they've got some content to push.
I'm sorry, but now you can't unhear this.
Whoa pic.twitter.com/YdXdeACEqL
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) October 18, 2026
New Harbor's own Alex Gibney's new film about Elon Musk continues to have issues with the platforms that keep pitching themselves as free speech absolutists and the "public square".
Steven Zeitchik
It's almost like the billionaires are all in cahoots or something.
Musk is playing at the Maine Film Center in Waterville this week.
Let's go to volleyball, where some Class A seeding is coming down to the wire. The top 3 seeds are all in play and lower down, 5 through 14. That's a lot!
This is where the Playoff Calculator comes in handy.
But we'll get clarity on all of that today, starting with South Portland and Falmouth.
SoPo started the season 1-4, but has won 7 of the last 8. Likewise, Falmouth started 2-3 before winning 7 straight.
Despite the chaos above, the Heal Points shakeout on this is simple: winner gets the 5 seed. As for the loser? Well that gets messy.
The rest of the Model's picks for today's games are after the jump.