Ramblers, Let's Get Rambling

Friday I headed down to Freeport to join WHOU's broadcast of the D South Final between Freeport and Winthrop in the shadow of the revamped LL Bean store (the new fish pond in the store is nice, by the way).

It's a great atmosphere in Freeport, highlighted by the biggest grill setup I've seen so far at a high school football game.

On the first drive of the game, Ross Fichthorn went 24 yards to set up what would surely be a score.

I almost marked him as in on the iPad. Maybe it's because of the person wearing an orange hat on the sideline that kind of looked like a pylon. But obviously they'd punch it in. Only, Freeport's defense didn't think so.

That's from the Game Report the app generates. Shoutout to the PA guy at Freeport for calling out tacklers. He did a great job all night.

At halftime Freeport led 3-0, thanks to a 33-yard FG from Bryson Jack at the end of the half, and it was beginning to look like Winthrop might really regret not converting that 1st & goal from the 2 on the first drive.

Then on the first play of the 4th quarter, Fichthorn broke free again, only this time he found the end zone. This put Freeport in a tough position. Andrew Thomas, their dual-threat QB left the game after taking a shot and you could see the trainer testing his eyesight on the sideline. Never a good sign. By the end of the game, he was no longer in pads.

On the next possession, Winthrop's Tristyan Ortiz came up with an interception then scored the insurance touchdown. Winthrop will play the winner of Bapst and Winslow.

If you were watching the WHOU broadcast, you probably noticed a couple things.

And

This has been something we've been hoping to do for a long time and it seems like we might have cracked it? The app (now in the App Store!) creates a feed every time a game is scored in the app and WHOU can now import that into their broadcast. You'll see this in action at the 8-Man State Games today where I'll be doing color with Ethan Snow.

It's pretty cool.

The app then generates a Game Report.

There's also a feature where you can sign up to have the Game Reports emailed to you automatically. Say if you had a super fan scoring your basketball games all season, your parents and whoever could get Game Reports with stats without having to bother the coach. It's like GameChanger and MaxPreps, but not terrible or insanely overpriced.

Michael Hoffer was in Freeport.

Freeport falls to Winthrop in Class D South Final

FREEPORT—For three quarters of Friday evening's Class D South Final at the Joan Benoit Samuelson Track and Field, top-ranked Freeport had the second-seeded, reigning state champion Winthrop Ramblers right where the Falcons wanted them. Behind on the scoreboard and stymied on offense. But in the blink

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

Winthrop avenged a loss to Freeport in the regular season, which might be a theme?

Let's go to Cumberland, where Greely was searching for a 3-peat with a semifinal matchup with Hermon, a team they beat in the regular season. When Hawks fumbled on the first play of the game, the Hermon faithful had to wonder if they'd made the long drive for nothing, but Hermon's defense held up. They played a great game, holding the potent Greely offense to 105 rushing yards.

“We learned after that game that we lost that we had to be tougher and stop making mistakes,” said Sam Hopkins, Hermon’s leading rusher. “And we learned that the North can play with anybody. People write us off because we’re from the North, but we’re just small-town kids who love to play.”

One of the feel-good stories of the year has been Anderson Noyes' return from a broken leg. He had 5 touchdowns last week against Skowhegan, but the comeback story might have come to an end last night when Noyes left the game after Cony's second play. He was in crutches by the end of the game.

The injury didn't seems to slow Cony down. Drew Lindquist threw 3 touchdown passes and the Rams held Fryeburg to 109 total yards in a shutout win.

“I told (our seniors) yesterday that I think they have the most wins in Cony history, and I’m thrilled they get to culminate it with one more game for a state title,” Lippert said. “The South has traditionally won more than the North, so we have to play our best game. We’ll see what we can do.”

When Leavitt lost quarterback Landon Marquis to a collarbone injury last week, it would be fair to wonder if they were primed for an upset. But as I pointed out on the podcast, you'd still have to score on them first.

Because the last time Leavitt allowed a point, the Dodgers were still playing baseball.

Freshman Jamison Hutchinson took over under center for Marquis and Leavitt's other stars took over the workload. Jeremiah McKenzie had 125 yards and 3 TDs. Darren Flagg added a score on 85 yards.

“For (Hutchinson) to get himself ready in a week and play as well as he did was good, and I think he’ll play even better next week after having the experience …” Leavitt coach Michael Hathaway said. “First start, as a 14-yard-old kid, is tough in a (semifinal), but I thought he handled it pretty well and I thought the guys around him did a nice job.”

We picked up a couple hundred yesterday.

But I like to think in terms of backers, not dollars.

So join up. Become a backer. Buckley will appreciate it.

One of the big stories of the year has been the chaos that is B South, but once the calendar flipped over to the playoffs, B South stopped being chaotic and started going chalk. Because, sometimes the most rebellious thing you can do is follow all the rules.

Will whoever had 1 vs 2 in B South please stand up? Also, you're going to need proof because no one will believe you.

Marshwood beat Kennebunk 32-16 in the final week of the regular season, but if we've learned anything in these playoffs, it's that regular season wins mean nothing come playoff time.

The Model has Marshwood as a slight favorite at home.

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