TA Crushes Portland

The Game of the Week usually delivers. If the game isn't great, it's usually at least decent. But sometimes it's like giving the ball to Rhamondre Stevenson--an absolute disaster.

The Week 5 Game of the Week was a no-brainer. A rematch of the Class A state championship game, 1 vs. 2 in the Varsity Maine poll. 2 vs. 4 in the Power Rankings. So I headed to Fitzy for Thornton Academy and Portland.

Turns out it was a Rhamondre Stevenson carry.

Portland's first three possessions were a shanked punt, a fumble, and a 4 and out. Thornton Academy scored on all three short fields and the game was over so fast I spent more time sitting in Red's Eats traffic than the game was competitive.

And it wasn't just some possession luck. Thornton Academy dominated both sides of the ball, led by Connor Ayoob, who Portland couldn't stop on the ground.

It was pretty late in the game before Portland even got across mid-field.

In the end, we got into running time and Thornton Academy avenged their loss in the Gold Ball game with an absolute thrashing of the Bulldogs and it easily could have been worse, if not for some acrobatic interceptions by Portland deep in their own territory.

Steve Craig was there with the writeup.

Thornton thumps top-ranked Portland

The No. 2 Golden Trojans get a bit of redemption for last year’s loss in the Class A title and shut out the Bulldogs.

The Portland Press HeraldSteve Craig

When you combine that result with Bonny Eagle's 34-8 road win over Oxford Hills, there starts to be some clarity and separation in the Power Rankings.

We'll get into that a little more in this week's Overreactions podcast, which hasn't been recorded yet, because of (hopefully) Rhamondre Stevenson's last game as a Patriot.

Elsewhere

Colby McCormack had a TD and 2 picks in Bonny Eagle's win at Oxford Hills...Kevin True's 2 picks helped Cheverus shut down Deering...Parker Morin added 4 more TDs to his huge year as Cony moved to 5-0 with a blowout of Fryeburg. The win made B.L. Lippert the winningest coach in school history...Gardiner forced 6 Medomak Valley turnovers to beat the Panthers and keep Rob Kennedy's dream of Cony and Gardiner both being 7-0 when they meet alive (we need a better name for that)...Tres Walker tossed 3 TDs and ran for another as Falmouth continued to get back in a winning groove...Austin West rushed for 271 yards and 3 TDs as Kennebunk rolled...Nick Doughty rushed for 3 scores as Mt. Ararat made a statement win over Lake Region...Colin Moody caught a touchdown pass from Noah McDonough with 19 seconds left to give Wells a huge win over Leavitt. Class C is gonna be a WAR...Iggy McGrath threw 6 touchdown passes as Yarmouth beat GNG in 8-man...Mark Lapointe threw for 3 TDs and ran another one in as Noble erased a 21-0 lead to stun Marshwood...Telstar beat Mount View 86-0. Cue the Facebook outrage.

Rankings

I'm starting to find some helpful things in the new MPA site, like the fact that you can add your own custom filter of results. You could make a filter of all of yesterday's games in, say, soccer and field hockey...or...all of the soccer scores...or...all of the scores in your region (which will be SUPER helpful for scoreboard watching to see how the Heal Points shake out). Anyway, I made some custom filters and that helped me clean up the missing soccer and field hockey scores, which means: updated rankings!

Here's boys soccer:

See where your team is.

Heals

Heal Points are also updated. You'll notice they also calculate Crabtree (and Heals for football, because why not?)

Portland freshman Nora Schmidt won the Festival of Champions in Belfast by 25 seconds(!). Do we maybe have a new Maine running star?

Maine runners beat heat, sweep Festival of Champions

Nora Schmidt of Portland and Alex Gilbert of Freeport win the girls and boys seeded races at the annual meet.

The Portland Press HeraldDave Dyer

Don't forget to vote for Dexter in the T-Mobile Friday Night 5G Lights contest. They're in third place, which means we're still losing to Arkansas. Arkansas.

You can vote every day.

Rhamondre Stevenson now has 2 TDs and I take back nothing I said. TreVeyon Henderson could have done that, had he been in the game.

Cut Stevenson.

The spreads are up for Monday's games.

Spreads

But did you beat the spread?

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly