Coach Lucas Labbe speaks to his Massabesic football team after its 34-6 victory at Marshwood on Friday night. The Mustangs improved to 3-1 on the season. Steve Craig photo
What was the story of the night in football on Friday? You can take your pick.
There were plenty of candidates this time.
High school football fans around the state were buzzing after one of the wildest and most unpredictable regular season nights many could remember. Upsets happened. Powers were toppled. Comebacks erased seemingly insurmountable leads.
The surprises came one after another. In South Berwick, four-time defending Class B champion Marshwood lost at home to Massabesic, 34-6. In Augusta, Cony handed Windham its first Class B North loss since 2019, 34-10. Lewiston, which has won two games each of the past three seasons, handled Scarborough – an upper-tier Class A team for years – 39-7.
There were more. Defending Class D champion Foxcroft Academy lost at home to Lisbon, 14-13. Bonny Eagle beating Edward Little wasn’t a surprise – until you factor in that the Scots trailed the Red Eddies by 26 points in the second half before storming back to win, 52-48.
For a day, Maine football was as hard to predict as the state’s famously fickle weather.
“It was a pretty wild night,” Cony Coach B.L. Lippert said. “One of our coaches will typically check scores at halftime just to give us an update on what’s going on. … Some of those halftime scores, as they were read to us, we were like ‘Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.’ ”
This typically hasn’t been the case. Maine football historically sees a power structure develop in its leagues, and the gaps between the better and lesser teams become canyons. It’s why blowouts have been a troubling trend, enough so that the football committee reworked its scheduling process to try to find more competitive matchups.
Friday night football in Maine may be fun. But dramatic and suspenseful? Not usually.
Until last weekend, that is. The chaos almost continued into Saturday. Class A power Thornton Academy needed to stop a late two-point conversion attempt by Class B Kennebunk to pull out a 15-13 win. The Trojans, the defending champions in Class A, trailed 7-2 at the half.
“The picture’s starting to crystalize a little bit, but I thought Friday night threw it off a little bit more,” Lippert said. “It goes against some of the trends we’ve seen for the last few years, with the same teams always winning.
“I don’t remember (a night) that had more shocking results than that one.”
He wasn’t alone.
“The whole year’s been kind of crazy,” said Massabesic Coach Lucas Labbe. “In A and B, especially B South, everything’s up in the air. It seems like anybody can beat anybody any given week.”
The Mustangs are becoming an example. Massabesic had become a success-starved program, but it surprised many in the state with a 14-13 win over South Portland a week earlier. On Friday, against a Marshwood team that has steamrolled Class B in recent years, they were dominant.
“It felt like anybody we played that week, it was going to be a tough game for them,” Labbe said. “As soon as we realized we could stop them after their first drive, there was definitely a quiet confidence. We started to have that feeling that we were going to be OK.”
Massabesic lost to Marshwood last year, 45-2. It was a different story on Friday.
“We know people don’t necessarily believe we’re going to be a top team yet,” he said. “But if we keep stringing things together, then people might start recognizing we have some pretty good kids.”
Cony enjoyed its own reversal of fortune. After losing to Windham, 36-7, last year, the Rams were the aggressors this time, and used a tough defense and bruising ground game to handle the Eagles. Caden Schleis-Hooyman ran for 147 yards and three touchdowns, and Eli Klaiber ran for 65 and returned an interception for another score.
“We controlled the line of scrimmage. … I wasn’t sure we’d handle it quite like that,” Lippert said. “We ran for close to 300 yards offensively. (At Cony) that’s pretty rare, but we’ve been able to run the ball pretty successfully in most of our games.”
It was a needed win for the Rams, who had lost to strong teams in Skowhegan and Oxford Hills but still needed to make a statement.
“There was maybe a seedling of doubt,” Lippert said. “Our kids needed to see it. … They needed to see it against a good opponent, a quality opponent.”
So did Lewiston. The Blue Devils have played the role of Class A also-ran, but new Coach Jason Versey has looked to instill a new culture.
On Friday, behind Eli Bigelow’s 288 yards rushing on 13 carries, Lewiston saw its newfound confidence pay off.
“We went in thinking that we were going to compete at a high level,” Versey said. ‘We’re beginning to have the mindset that we can compete with everyone. There’s a confidence that our kids are starting to have. … I think kids are tired of losing. We’re exhausted by that kind of mindset.”
And motivated to show that things have changed.
“They saw that no one picked us to win that football game,” Versey said.
Another blow for the prognosticators, on a night full of them.
“It was a tremendous week of football,” Versey said. “I think things are being shaken up across the state of Maine. Some teams that you wouldn’t give a chance to have found ways to win.
“There is parity. Anything can happen.”
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