Week 7 Thoughts on the Weekend

- It has been awhile since we started down the road of the 2025 season. Nine weeks ago in fact. It all started out with a long Sunday night that brought us to Midnight Madness. Now we are staring down the business end of the season. Gone are the days where a win or loss didn’t really have a significant meaning on the direction of the season. Now a win or loss means plenty for almost every team in the state.

- We are already seeing the influx of questions surrounding the playoff-clinching scenarios and the what-if possibilities. To address this we will be hosting our fourth annual Crabtree Q & A session on Monday night. We will go over the numbers and list as many scenarios as possible to detail who has locked in their playoff spot, what can still move up a place or two, and who will be playing their last football of the season next week.

- When Evan Madigan of Edward Little scored early in the fourth quarter of the Red Eddie’s Thursday night game against Windham, it was interesting to note the ramifications of the next play and how it would impact the end of the game. At the point of the touchdown, Windham still led 7-6. The Red Eddies opted to go for a two-point conversion, which would have put them in the lead if success. However, the running attempt was stopped cold. Normally that sort of one-point gap could have easily been overcome. With less than twelve minutes to go and Windham receiving the ball, the strategy portion of the game said that another touchdown with a two-point conversion would have created a two-score lead. As the situational play would have it that is exactly what happened following Jordan Pastore’s goal line touchdown run. The successful two-point conversion pass gave Windham a 15-6 lead with only 2:15 remaining in the game. Edward Little would need to score a touchdown, recover an on-side kick, and get either a touchdown or a field goal to take the lead. Had more time been on the clock it would not have been such a daunting task. Edward Little tried valiantly to race downfield once the received the ball. That potential comeback was squashed in the end as a Windham defender picked off a pass that allowed the Eagles to run out the clock.

- Maine schools went .500 on Friday in games against New Hampshire opponents. Bangor, who was playing at home but without starting quarterback Kyle Johnson, played a close-fought game against the Winnacunnet Warriors after a scoreless first half. The Ram’s Eli Marsh tied things up with his 23-yard touchdown run. However, a series of three fumbles, two by Bangor, eventually led to the Warriors scoring on a Sean Griffin quarterback keeper and taking a 14-7 lead. In the closely contesting game it proved to be a lead that Bangor could not surpass as that score held to the final buzzer. Meanwhile, in the southern part of the state, Noble played their first-ever New Hampshire opponent in a regular season football game when they hosted the Keene Blackbirds. The Knights fought to a 21-7 halftime lead. They surrendered just a single Keene touchdown the rest of the way to the end as they celebrated a 28-14 victory. The Bangor loss was the first time they lost to Winnacunnet in their three-year history. Maine schools are 2-2 against New Hampshire schools this season as Thornton Academy lost to Bedford and Fryeburg Academy defeated Laconia. The last two out-of-state games will happen over the next two weeks. This Friday Portland will travel to Exeter, while York will host Monadnock next Saturday at Kennebunk.

- No lead seemed safe at Memorial Field as Deering twice rallied from a deficit to defeat Oxford Hills 24-20 on Friday. Oxford Hills climbed out to a 14-0 first quarter lead with touchdowns by Keegan Ridley and Dylan Truman. However, that lead would be wiped out and gained back in the second quarter. Deering scored three times early on a run by Joey Foley, a touchdown reception by Corbin Burke, and a fumble recovery that led to a touchdown which put the Rams up 18-14. The Vikings re-claimed the lead back as Jackson Stack caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Truman to go up 20-18. In the third quarter Foley picked up his second touchdown of the game from the goal line to put the Rams back on top by a score of 24-20. The Vikings tried to ride a rather successful aerial game throughout the evening. Truman completed 18 of 28 passes for 234 yards. However, three Vikings fumbles stymied their attempt to get back on top as Deering held on the rest of the way for the victory.

- Last week South Portland held a very slim 1.8 Crabtree point advantage over Scarborough for the fourth and final playoff spot in Southern Class A. These two neighbors met on Friday in a game that had fourth place on the line with two weeks remaining in the Class A regular season. That margin was blown wide open as the Red Riots crushed the Red Storm 34-0 on Friday. South Portland quarterback Parker Reny would throw five touchdowns on the night, three of them to Kai Turner. At the end of the night that 1.8 point difference grew to 15.8 points with two games remaining. South Portland’s next two opponents are Massabesic and Portland, while Scarborough plays Noble and Bonny Eagle.

- By the time Massabesic responded midway through the second quarter of their game against Bonny Eagle, the Scots had already jumped out to a four-touchdown lead on their Southern Maine rivals. The Mustangs tried to keep it close, their touchdown with 19.2 seconds to go in the first half narrowed the Bonny Eagle lead to 36-14. However, the Scots were just too much the rest of the way as they outscored Massabesic three touchdowns to one en route to a 57-21 victory. The eight touchdowns was a season-high for Bonny Eagle. It also ensured they would remain in first in Southern Class A, just 3.1 Crabtree points ahead of Thornton Academy.

- Skowhegan’s playoff situation received a significant boost on Friday as their 34 consecutive points helped them roll to a 34-12 win over Brunswick. While the Dragons seized the early 6-0 lead, Skowhegan scored two in the first half, then three more times in the third quarter. While Brunswick scored early in the fourth quarter, they just weren’t able to put any more points on the scoreboard. The River Hawks, who came into the week 1-5 along with Brunswick and Mt. Blue, were able to put some distance between them and Mt. Blue in the way of 12.5 Crabtree points. These two teams will play next week in the regular season finale. For Brunswick, who sit in last place but are only 7.1 Crabtree points back of Mt. Blue for the sixth and final playoff spot, will need to defeat Fryeburg Academy to clinch a playoff spot.

- Kennebunk’s Austin West has enjoyed quite the high school career for the Rams. He added to his school accomplishments on a night where he ran for 340 rushing yards and scored four touchdowns, three of which via the run, that contributing to Kennebunk’s 54-21 win over Marshwood. The effort helped Austin set a new school football record with 2,665 career rushing yards. He also set a school single game record for rushing yards, breaking the previous best of 289 set in 2021 by David York.

- The Cony Rams 46-14 win over Lawrence, combined with Fryeburg Academy’s 35-0 loss to Falmouth, has secured the Rams first place in Northern Class B and will give them a regional semifinal home game on either November 7th or November 8th. While the loss may sting, things are still on the optimistic side for the Bulldogs as they still have a chance move into third place on Friday when they host the current third place team Messalonskee on Friday.

- Biddeford, the sixth place team in Southern Class B, traveled to seventh place Gorham on Friday for a game that carried significant playoff consequences. The winners of the game would firmly establish themselves in sixth place, creating an extremely difficult road map for the losing team to have to overcome to make the playoffs. Behind a five-touchdown effort from Rams quarterback Garrett Poulin, which included eight tackles and an interception on defense, it was Gorham that took the 36-12 home finale victory on Friday. Poulin completed 10 of 14 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns while running 16 times for 70 yards with two touchdowns. The result gives Gorham a 10.7 Crabtree point advantage over Biddeford. Both teams will have rivalry games to close out the regular season as Gorham travels to top-ranked Westbrook and Biddeford hosts second ranked Kennebunk.

- In Class C, perhaps no team has had the roller coaster-like movement of the Wells Warriors. Since the start of the regular season Wells have been in 3rd place (week 1), 5th place (week 2), 9th place (week 3), 6th place (week 4), 4th place (week 5), 7th place (week 6), and now 5th place again after their 22-7 win over York on Friday. They are currently nestled between fourth place Leavitt, who are 12.5 Crabtree points ahead of them, and sixth place Nokomis, who are 8.9 Crabtree points behind them. Wells will wrap up their season on the road as they travel North to Old Town to take on the ninth place Coyotes.

- With Gardiner’s narrow 14-13 win over Foxcroft Academy, the Tigers found themselves with a chance at second place. How exactly can this happen to a 6-1 team when second place is owned by 7-0 Hermon? That is quite simple – strength of schedule! At the end of the week Gardiner’s opponents have a combined 29 wins. Hermon opponents meanwhile have a combined 21 wins. There is the possibility that Gardiner could still move into first place, although they have the toughest road (7-0 Cony) when compared to second place Hermon (5-2 Leavitt) and first place Greely (0-7 Oceanside).

- The playoff field for Northern Class D is all but decided. However, home field in the regional quarterfinals, also known as fourth place, still remains in play. Currently the 2-5 Black Bears maintain a significant strength of schedule edge over 3-4 Mattanawcook Academy and 2-5 Maine Central Institute. Each Northern Class D team plays the other six teams in their region. That means the strength of schedule was decided by who these teams got to play outside of their region. Maranacook has 4-3 Freeport and 7-0 Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale. Mattanawcook Academy has 1-6 Lisbon and 0-7 Mountain Valley. Maine Central Institute has 3-4 Old Town and 4-3 Poland. With 7.3 Crabtree points separating these three teams there is the possibility that any one of them could move into fourth depending on how the other two teams do in their games.

- On paper, the Friday showdown between 5-1 teams Madison and Winslow looked to be a potentially close game. On the field it was anything but close. The Black Raiders rode a ground game that amassed a mind-boggling 507 rushing yards during their 56-15 win. If you were a Bulldogs fan, the scoreboard was not something you wanted to watch. Before the game was even two minutes old Winslow had a 14-0 lead. By the end of the first quarter Winslow lead climbed to 30-0. An 84-yard touchdown run by Michael Loubier and a 98-yard touchdown run by Liem Fortin were part of those scoring efforts. By halftime Winslow held a commanding 42-0 lead. In the second half the two teams exchanged touchdowns that took the game to its final score. Loubier, Fortin, and Broddik Bimpson each had over 100 rushing yards for Winslow.

- With Cordell Jones returning to action for Portland, it coincided with a much-needed confidence building 45-0 win against Lewiston. Jones combined with Alex Martin for 160 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the afternoon. They also got contributions from Justin Bouchard and Jake Johnson, who each pitched in with a rushing touchdown. The win, combined with Bangor’s loss on Friday, gave Portland some breathing space in the race for the top spot in Northern Class A. Last week Portland was only 7.4 Crabtree ahead of Bangor. After this week they increased that lead to 22.2 Crabtree points. The Bulldogs would secure first place and home field in the northern regional playoffs with either a win against Exeter or South Portland in the next two weeks, or a Bangor loss to either Edward Little or Oxford Hills.

- In a game where the momentum changed with each wave of turnovers, the Westbrook Blue Blazes got enough breaks in the end to beat Cheverus 27-21 on Saturday afternoon. After Cheverus took an early lead, Cole Tanner’s touchdown run and touchdown catch from Gio Staples helped put Westbrook on top 14-7 going into the half. A Cheverus fumble and a shanked punt led to these quick Westbrook scores. Even after Cheverus tied the score 14-14 on a Colton Jewett rushing touchdown, a blocked punt by Tony Bongomin led to Tanner’s third touchdown of the afternoon and a 21-14 lead. Things looked like they were going in Cheverus’ favor in the fourth quarter when Nick Deschambault hit AJ Lauture over the midfield for a 36-yard touchdown. Then, Cheverus picked off a Staples pass. However, that setback was immediately wiped away when Westbrook’s Owen Taylor leaped in front of Deschambault as he threw his pass, taking the ball 59 yards to the end zone for the pick-six score. Then, on the ensuing Cheverus drive as they got deep into Westbrook territory, Tanner picked off a Stags pass to end their comeback attempt that essentially ended the contest. The Westbrook win was the first time they defeated Cheverus since a 35-14 win on Friday, September 27th, 2005.

- The Westbrook Blue Blazes should send a thank-you card to the Poland Knights for helping them finish the week in first place in Southern Class B. Going into Saturday evening, Kennebunk had a Crabtree total of 132.142. Westbrook ended their game with a Crabtree total of 130.357. However, that Westbrook Crabtree total was incomplete. Poland, whom they played back on week five, had an evening game against Freeport. If Freeport won, Westbrook’s Crabtree total would remain unchanged and Kennebunk would finish the week in first place. If Poland won, the additional opponent win would be enough to move Westbrook into a tie with Kennebunk at 132.142. Last week, Westbrook defeated Kennebunk 20-0 so they had the first tiebreaker of head-to-head record. With that in mind the scoreboard watching began, Things were immediately favoring Westbrook as Poland took a 21-7 lead into the half. That lead increased to 27-7 at the end of the third quarter. When the final buzzer sounded, the 35-14 Poland win nudged Westbrook into that Crabtree tie, with the tiebreaker giving the Blue Blazes first place in the region.

- Some of the most compelling football on Saturday happened in Jay during the final few minutes of the 8 man game between Spruce Mountain and Stearns. When the Minutemen’s Lucas Pelkey crossed the goal line for an 85-yard touchdown, followed by Cohen Raymond’s successful two-point conversion, Stearns took a 24-22 lead with less than three minutes to go. From the moment Spruce Mountain covered an attempted Stearns squib kick that gave them starting position near midfield, the series of events showed that a good team makes its own breaks. On 4th and 14 at the Stearns 49, Spruce Mountain completes the pass to a receiver that was right at the first down marker. Fast forward a minute when the Spruce Mountain quarterback fumbles the ball while evading a Stearns lineman. Fortunately for him, his team, and the excitement factor, he recovered the ball. On the next play, a 3rd and 26 at the Stearns 41, a Stearns defender attempted to jump in front the pass. However, the pass was caught before the defender could get a hand on the ball. The ball was brought to the Stearns 14 yard line with 14.8 seconds to go. Several plays later and after an extended delay due to an injury to Spruce Mountain’s Dylan Jewett following his run to the Stearns one yard line, it was Austin Armandi’s that became the hero of the game as he crossed the goal line for what would become the game-winning touchdown.

- Since week two, the Boothbay Seahawks have been on the outside looking in regarding the playoffs in the 8 man small school south class. Besides having Old Orchard Beach, Telstar, and Sacopee Valley in front of them, they have also had to contend with a Traip Academy team that has been in fourth place. After sitting in fifth place for the last five weeks, Boothbay was able to take hold of fourth place following their 48-38 road victory at Fort Kent over the Valley Mustangs on Saturday. Traip Academy, who lost to Old Orchard Beach 50-12 on Saturday, fell from fourth place to fifth place. Going into the final week of the season Boothbay hosts 0-6 Mount View while Traip Academy travels to Bethel to play 4-2 Telstar.

- Saturday was the big day for the Dexter Tigers as they hosted Houlton on Saturday. The game was big because this was the designated Spirit Week game as part of the T-Mobile 5G Friday Night Lights contest. Almost everyone was adorned in some way, shape, or form with the color magenta as part of the motif for the game. There were games, contests, and a pre-game ceremony where a T-Mobile representative awarded the school a check for $25,000 for being a finalist in the contest. Despite the distractions and time requirements demanded of students and staff for all the activities during the week, the Tigers players handled it without issue as evidence by their 50-8 win over Houlton. Dexter’s Kody Kimball threw for two touchdowns and ran for 240 yards and three touchdowns on the day. Bryce Cooper, also for Dexter, had a bit of a trifecta as threw a touchdown, ran for a touchdown, and caught two passes for touchdowns.

- Out of state tracker
Bedford defeated Bishop Guertin 35-28 on Friday. The 7-0 Bulldogs will travel to 3-4 Londonderry on Friday.
Exeter defeated Spaulding 28-13 on Friday. The 5-2 Blue Hawks will host 5-2 Portland on Friday.
Keene lost 28-14 to Noble on Friday. The 1-6 Blackbirds will travel to 3-4 Nashua North on Friday.
Laconia defeated Stevens 21-6 on Friday. The 5-2 Sachems will travel to 0-6 Sanborn on Friday.
Monadnock defeated Fall Mountain 49-0 on Saturday. The 7-0 Huskies will travel to Kennebunk to play 1-6 York on Saturday.
Winnacunnet defeated Bangor 14-7 on Friday. The 6-1 Warriors will travel to 4-3 Salem on Friday.

"I don’t want to hear anything about this weak schedule (stuff), because we’ve played everybody but Freeport. I keep hearing it, and it’s fine. But these kids deserve more credit, because they’re playing good football.
Joel Stoneton, Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale head coach

- Streak tracker
There are 7 unbeaten teams in Maine, which is unchanged from last week
1 team ended their winning streak of 4 or more games: Madison (5)
The longest active winning streaks belong to Old Orchard Beach (18), Greely (16), Bonny Eagle (7), Cony (7), Hermon (7), John Bapst (7), Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale (7)
2 teams ended their losing streaks of 4 or more games: Gorham (4) and Skowhegan (4)
The longest active losing streaks belong to Mount View (27), Belfast (17), Waterville (16), Mountain Valley (11), and Hampden Academy (9)

- First place teams after week seven
Class A North – Portland (same from last week)
Class A South – Bonny Eagle (same from last week)
Class B North – Cony (same from last week)
Class B South – Westbrook (changed from last week)
Class C – Greely (same from last week)
Class D North – John Bapst (same from last week)
Class D South – Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale (same from last week)
8 Man Large School North – Camden Hills (same from last week)
8 Man Large School South – Spruce Mountain (same from last week)
8 Man Small School North – Stearns (same from last week)
8 Man Small School South – Old Orchard Beach (same from last week)

- Five games of interest to us in week eight
Thornton Academy at Bonny Eagle
Gardiner at Cony
Hermon at Leavitt
Medomak Valley at Nokomis
Camden Hills at Lake Region

What are your thoughts on the weekend?

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