Bonny Eagle’s Trevor Perkins tips a ball intended for Oxford Hills’ Lincoln Merrill a Class A semifinal football game Paris last November. Brewster Burns photo
When the Oxford Hills and Bonny Eagle football teams take a look in the mirror this week, they might be looking back and lamenting about losses to teams from New Hampshire last weekend. Or … they might be looking ahead to facing each other, with both teams having some things in common as they prepare for a key Week 6 clash Friday night at 7 p.m. in Standish.
One team will improve to 4-2 and regain some momentum for the stretch run in Class A. The other will drop to 3-3 and fall well behind in playoff positioning.
“Those (two losses to Thornton and Merrimack) certainly showed that we didn’t play a complete game, and when you don’t play a complete game against good teams, you don’t win,” Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper said. “We had our moments in both, but definitely not good enough to win.”
Oxford Hills coach Mark Soehren said the Vikings’ losses the past two weeks, against Leavitt and then Portsmouth/Oyster River, were both tests, and he noted that last year’s state championship team only faced one test all year on the way to a title. This year’s team suffered some hits from the graduation of a handful of last year’s standout players.
“Little things matter when you play great teams. That is the most important lesson for inexperienced players,” Soehren said.
Soehren said that the Oxford Hills players do a good job of moving on to the next game, which isn’t much, if any, easier. The Scots have outscored opponents 159-72, including giving up just 17 points combined in their three wins.
Soehren noted that one thing the Vikings — ranked third in the latest Varsity Maine football poll — need to clean up in the Bonny Eagle game is the players working better with their teammates, rather than trying to improvise.
As Cooper said of the Scots in their losses, Soehren said the Vikings know they didn’t play their best games against either Leavitt or Portsmouth.
“If we execute more consistently, we will compete better against our opponents,” he added.
While the Vikings know who they are on offense — a deep, potent passing game led by quarterback Brady Truman, with a pair of bruising runners in Hunter Tardiff and Jake Carson — Cooper admitted that the Scots are “still in a learn-about-ourselves mode as we figure out how to develop some new go-to guys.”
“We started the year thinking we had a very skilled and diverse skill group,” Cooper said. “In the first game, we had six different runners get carries and five different receivers get a catch. Unfortunately, we lost a few players to injury and have had to retool over the past three weeks.”
Bonny Eagle, which is tied for sixth in the Varsity Maine poll, has had to lean a little extra on quarterback Terrell Edwards, as well as the blocking of senior linemen Kaden Sullivan and Corey Havu. The Scots got tight end Connor McAvoy back last week, and he will help open some holds for running backs Kyle Blaney and Trevor Nevells. Edwards will also get some carries, and when he drops back to pass he will be looking for Emmett St. Pierre, Owen Sperrey and Will Warner.
The Scots offense will look to keep drives going and finish against a Vikings defense that has allowed only 11 points per game. That kind of ball control will help keep the Oxford Hills offense (26.2 points per game) off the field.
When the Vikings do have the ball, Cooper said Bonny Eagle need to prevent them from hitting big plays. He noted that in the Scots’ two losses, the defense gave up five touchdowns of more than 35 yards.
“We will have to play great on defense to keep (Oxford Hills) from scoring enough to win,” he said.
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