- Hello everyone. We were very excited for another year of covering high school football in Maine after the finish to 2022. There were plenty of talking points to the season, which we are going to try and cover in this article.

- We would like to start off first with a big congrats to Brunswick and Greely. Both had length winless streaks coming into the opening weekend. Brunswick’s last victory was 28-12 win over Brewer in week two of the 2021 regular season. 721 days going into Friday night. At the end of the night the Dragons defeated Gray-New Gloucester 54-26 in their very first 8 man football game. Out in Naples, Greely picked up their first 8 man victory with a 64-26 win over Lake Region. The seniors on this Rangers team were only in 7th grade when their school recorded their last victory – a 22-14 win over Biddeford in the 2018 Southern Class B regional quarterfinal.

- Our opening game of the regular season was on a nice, calm, cloudless evening at Old Orchard Beach. And the Seagulls, the defending 2022 8 man small school champions, wasted little time showing why they are getting consideration for a repeat at state with a 64-0 victory over Traip Academy at Joe Regina Football Field. They wasted little time getting onto a winning foot when Asher Hubert returning the opening kickoff of the game 80 yards for a touchdown. They held a 30-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 52-0 lead at halftime. And they wasted little time with lengthy drives, needing just 15 offensive plays to score their seven offensive touchdowns. Going back to last year, the Gulls find themselves in the midst of an 8-game unbeaten. This exceeds their previously longest run in the past 19 years, when they won six straight in 2009 before falling in overtime in the Class C Western regional semifinals to Yarmouth.

- It took a little bit for Sanford to get themselves going on Friday. Kicking off their season at Alumni Stadium, at the half it was visiting Scarborough that held a 17-13 lead over the Spartans. Once the second half got underway Sanford took the first lead of the game and didn’t look back as they scored 28 consecutive points to claim the 41-17 victory. Jordan Bissonnette was Sanford lead’s yardage gainer, rushing for 158 yards and 3 touchdowns on 21 carries. This was part of Sanford’s 305 yards on the ground, dwarfing the 48 rushing yards by Scarborough. Part of that ground game came from Rhylen Avery (9 carries, 103 rushing yards, 1 touchdown) and Cameron Suhy (3 carries, 20 rushing yards, 1 touchdown).

- One of the games circled across many calendars over the summer was the Thornton Academy and Portland match-up on Friday. And for most of the game it certainly lived up to its billing as a must-see contest. It was a back-and-forth game with each side taking their shot and matching the score. The game came down to the final plays for each team. The Bulldogs made their most of their chance with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Louis Thurston to Reegan Buck. Meanwhile with just 48 seconds left, the Portland defense held strong to preserve the victory. Along with Buck’s winning touchdown catch, he also scored two more touchdowns on the ground.

- If there was one contest the stood out at the end of the evening, it was Deering picking up a 17-7 road win against Marshwood on Friday. The win was the first Rams victory for new coach Brendan Scully, whose team broke a 7-7 deadlock in the third quarter on Joey Foley’s second rushing touchdown of the game. It was then iced with minutes left in the game on a 20-yard Christian Silva field goal.

- Messalonskee clinched their first season-opening win since 2017 with a 47-8 victory over Falmouth. The Eagles came on flying in the first quarter on first down as Quarterback Tatum Doucette threw a 41-yard pass to Cash Bizer, who leaped up to catch the football over a Falmouth defender, and proceeded to run it home from a 76-yard touchdown. They would take a 29-0 lead in the third quarter on Doucette’s fourth touchdown of the game. They also get a rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter by Sam Dube, who caught two other scoring passes from Doucette for touchdowns. Bizer had a second touchdown catch on the night as did Brady Brunell (two) and Garrett Card (one).

- The Gardiner Tigers left little to discussion in their home opener on the artificial turf of Hoch Field against Mt. Blue. The Tigers racked up a 30-0 lead in the third quarter before Mt. Blue got onto the scoreboard, then exchanging touchdowns in the fourth quarter to celebrate the 37-12 victory. While Gardiner’s first two touchdowns came on the ground, they got 178 of their 246 yards through the air from the arm of quarterback Chase Burgess to Brady Davidson and Zach Kristan. The two receivers combined for six receptions each, with Kristan getting 75 yards and two touchdowns and Davidson having 57 receiving yards and a touchdown.

- Leavitt wasted little time showing why they were a consensus pick as the top team in Class C, if not one of the best in the state, with their 45-8 home win over Fryeburg Academy. 366 of their 538 offensive yards came on the ground, getting 22 first downs. Obviously the Hornets efforts weren’t just limited to the ground. One of the more impressive passes during their game came in the first half when quarterback Noah Carpenter, standing from around his own 13 yard line, threw a beautiful arching pass to Will Keach, who was several steps ahead of his defender when he hauled in the pass in full stride, and he outran several Fryeburg Academy defenders for the 81-yard catch and run score.

- People tend to associate 8 man football with high scoring contests. And sure, sometimes that perception fits. Then you have moments like what happened in Morse when they combined with the Windjammers for 6 points. A fourth-quarter score by William Haslam was the difference maker in the lowest scoring 8 man game in the four-year history of 8 man football under the MPA. The Shipbuilders were involved in the previously low-scoring contest when they defeated Mt. Ararat 8-6.

- The Yarmouth Clippers showed little signs of a championship hangover Friday as they ran at will against Mt. Ararat in their 30-6 victory. 286 of the team’s 310 yards was on the ground. And despite converting four for nine on third down and going one for three on fourth down, Yarmouth did pick up 17 first downs and had no turnovers. Senior back Michael McGonagle looked strong throughout the contest, running over and through defenders in much of the game.

- When Maranacook made their move into 8 man, a young coach named Jordan DeMillo was brought in to replace a departing Walter Polkey. In that time he lead the Black Bears to a 20-8 record and an appearance in the 2021 8 man small school state championship. During the off-season Skip Bessey took over as the Maranacook coach and in his debut game his Black Bears put together a dominating 56-20 win. When quarterback Kody Goucher was not throwing the ball into the hands of Robbie Vivenzio for three touchdown passes, he was running for 99 yards and 2 touchdown. Also on the ground the Black Bears got scoring contributions from Owen Dunn (87 rushing yards, 1 touchdown), Gabe Jacobs (73 rushing yards, 1 touchdown), and Kaden Neptune (36 rushing yards, 1 touchdown). Defensively the team limited Boothbay to 296 total yards, 86 of which were through the air, and a 4 for 12 conversation rate on third down to go with eight tackles for losses.

- Northern Class C was a fiercely contested region in 2022, and that looks to be the same case in 2023 after seeing the results of the first week. There were wins by Hermon (54-12 over Brewer), Oceanside (50-12 over Cape Elizabeth), Medomak Valley (36-22 over Hampden Academy), and Nokomis (38-12 over Maine Central Institute). Next Friday these four teams will begin their jostling for position as Medomak Valley hosts Nokomis and Hermon hosts Oceanside.

- During Sacopee Valley’s first foray to Thorndyke on Saturday for a football game, Tyler Easterbrooks was all over the field as he threw and ran for a combined 309 yards of offense, threw and ran for two touchdowns each, and had a hand in four successful two-point conversions. The win was the Hawks first season opening victory since they defeated Traip Academy 25-0 in a 2017 home game.

- In out-of-class games, Class A teams went 4-0 against Class B teams. Bangor defeated Lawrence 21-6, South Portland defeated Cony 20-6, Bonny Eagle beat Massabesic 50-3, and Windham shut out Skowhegan 35-0. The only other out-of-class game was on Saturday when Nokomis defeated Maine Central Institute 38-12. Out of the 26 games next week between teams in Classes A through D, there will only be three such games; Fryeburg Academy against Westbrook, Wells against York, and Cheverus against Gorham.

- The first two of the seven Maine vs New Hampshire border battle games will happen next week when Sanford travels to Dunaway Field in Dover to play the Green Wave and Scarborough will host the Bishop Guertin Cardinals of Nashua.

- As is customary in our pre-season preview we referenced coaching longevity in the state of Maine. And we used the information that we can locate. As we have mentioned in past segments, the state of football records is spotty at best. Some places have lots of available information. The Little Ten Conference has one of the best available archives that a person can find. After that, not so much. So last week we mentioned about the milestones of various coaches. And through a two-word response by Mattanawcook Academy head coach Brad Bishop, it led to an interesting two-day research quest about some of the longevity marks of our coaches since the retiring of Joe Rafferty.

Last week we mentioned that it was Mike Fallon who now had the longest tenure of any coach with the retiring of Joe Rafferty. While Mike has been at Sanford for 28 years and has coached the longest at one place in Maine for any of the state’s current head coaches, it is not a continuous run. In 2014 he stepped away from the head-coaching role for one season. During that time an assistant on the staff took over the role of head coach. The following season a rejuvenated Mike returned to lead Sanford. To show how small of a world it is, that assistant was Keith Noel, the new head coach of Kennebunk.

So who does have the longest continuous run of coaching if it is not Mike? That belongs to Kevin Cooper and Tim Roche. Both started with their respective teams at Bonny Eagle and Tim Roche in 1998 and have led their teams ever since.

Now, if Mike Fallon is not the longest tenured head coach who would it be? Naturally one might think of Alex Rotsko. He did lead American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1983 to 1992. Since then he has coached at Longmeadow (1993-2011) and Marshwood (2012 to present) for 31 years. So if you count college and high school, he would be the one to have the most overall years coached.

But what if we are only talking about high school? There is one more coach who pre-dates Alex in terms of the longest high school coaching career and that is Brad Bishop.

Courtesy of information from Brad, we put together his head coaching career dating back to 1989 when he led the Winthrop Ramblers to a 7-2 season. The following year he would begin a six-year run at Morse as the Shipbuilders head coach. After a year away, he began a five-year run in 1997 as the Lawrence Bulldogs head coach. In 2002 he started as the head coach at Livermore Falls, remaining there until their last year prior to the Spruce Mountain consolidation with neighboring Jay High School. In 2013 he would lead Messalonskee for six years as the Eagles head coach. Then in 2019 he went north to lead Mattanawcook Academy, a position he has held since. Despite a two-game gap in available records in 1994, we counted a 272-game run in 32 years as a head coach. After that, the closest in terms of total games led in Maine are 243 by Kevin Cooper, 239 by Tim Roche, and 238 by Mike Fallon.

- New Hampshire tracker
Bedford defeated Bishop Guertin 40-3 on Friday. The 1-0 Bulldogs will travel to 0-1 Nashua South next Friday.
Bishop Guertin lost to Bedford 40-3 on Friday. The 0-1 Cardinals will travel to 0-1 Scarborough next Friday.
Dover defeated Winnacunnet 35-0 on Friday. The 1-0 Green Wave will host 1-0 Sanford next Friday.
Merrimack lost to Nashua North 24-7 on Friday. The 0-1 Tomahawks will host 0-1 Keene next Friday.
Portsmouth-Oyster River defeated Spaulding 40-6 on Friday. The 1-0 ClipperCats will host 0-1 Winnacunnet next Friday.
Spaulding lost to Portsmouth-Oyster River 40-6 on Friday. The 0-1 Red Raiders will travel to 0-1 Timberlane next Friday.
Winnacunnet lost to Dover 35-0 on Friday. The 0-1 Warriors will travel to 1-0 Portsmouth-Oyster River next Friday. 

- Quote of the week
"We all came into this game knowing we were going to win it because of the work we put in and the coaches we have and the players we have. They all voted TA because TA’s supposed to be the school. We definitely did make a statement, that we are the best team in the state and nobody’s stopping us."
Aidan McGowan, Portland running back

- Streak tracker
There are 39 unbeaten teams in Maine
1 team had their winning streak of 4 or more games ended; Skowhegan (4)
The longest active winning streaks belongs to Leavitt (12), Oxford Hills (12), Foxcroft Academy (9), Old Orchard Beach (8), and Yarmouth (4) 
3 teams ended their losing streak of 4 or more games; Brunswick (10), Greely (8), and Sacopee Valley (4)
The longest active losing streaks belongs to Traip Academy (19), Madison (9), Valley (8), Edward Little (7), and Mount View (6)

- First place teams after week one
Class A North – Oxford Hills
Class A South – Sanford
Class B North – Gardiner
Class B South – Kennebunk
Class C North – Nokomis
Class C South – Cheverus
Class D North – Foxcroft Academy
Class D South – Freeport
8 Man Large School North – Camden Hills and Waterville
8 Man Large School South – Greely
8 Man Small School North – Bucksport, Dexter, Mattanawcook Academy, and Orono
8 Man Small School South – Dirigo, Maranacook, Old Orchard Beach, and Sacopee Valley

- Five games of interest to us in week two
Sanford at Dover(NH)
Thornton Academy at Oxford Hills
Oceanside at Hermon
Dirigo at Old Orchard Beach
Lisbon at Freeport

What are your thoughts on the weekend?