Want to win a championship in Maine high school football? Run the ball.
It’s not the only route to clutching the gold ball at Fitzpatrick Stadium the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but riding a strong running game through the postseason is a time-tested method.
The surviving Pine Tree Conference teams in Class A and Class B all have depended heavily on the run to get to Friday night’s semifinals (all games kick off at 7 p.m.). They haven’t necessarily gone about it the same way, though.
Fourth-seeded Lewiston (7-2) has had the most consistent running game among the four Class A contestants. The quartet of Jeff Keene, Joe McKinnon, Jeff Turcotte and Matt Therrien has combined for nearly 2,400 yards on the ground. Opponents have to pick their poison, whether it’s the speedy Keene, the shifty McKinnon, the physical Turcotte or the slashing Therrien.
In last week’s quarterfinals, Messalonskee elected to try to shut out the outside running game, so the Blue Devils went inside with Turcotte (15 carries, 151 yards, three touchdowns) and McKinnon (16-105-2) and cruised to a 42-13 win.
Many teams that rely on a committee of running backs during the regular season pare down the rotation in the playoffs and often lean on one workhorse back, but the Blue Devils, always looking to take what the defense gives them, want to keep all of their options open, coach Bill County said.
“One of the things we’ve been fortunate with with our four guys is you can kind of play the hot hand,” County said. “All four kids have different strengths, and it kind of depends on what the defense is loading up on. I think having all four of those kids really helps us because we firmly believe that if you’re going to tighten up on one of them, then you’re going to have to loosen up on what the other does well.”
What sets the Blue Devils apart from the other three semifinalists is they’ve been able to keep their backfield relatively healthy all season. Semifinal opponent Brunswick was not so fortunate. In fact, the eighth-seeded Dragons (6-3) lost the PTC’s leading rusher, Dylan Walton, for the season when he suffered a shoulder injury in a 28-12 loss to the Blue Devils on Sep. 24.
The loss of Walton had the Dragons reeling through losses to Lewiston and Cony, but they have since won four straight with a revamped backfield consisting of new QB Ezra Drehobl and running backs Keith Kitchens and Jordan Rysdham. The trio helped Brunswick run for 289 yards against top-ranked Lawrence in a shocking 14-13 quarterfinal upset last week.
Like Lewiston, Brunswick runs the Wing-T, so County doesn’t expect the Blue Devils will have to make a lot of adjustments as long as they’re prepared to face a confident foe.
“Formation-wise and scheme-wise, we’re a lot alike, so I think for the most part, preparation stays the same. We just have to make the adjustments on the different personnel,” County said. “I have to say, since they’ve found out Kitchens is as good of a runner as he is, it’s opened them up a little bit. They feel like they can pound the ball on people and be patient.”
Third-seeded Mt. Blue (7-2) takes a four-game winning streak into Cameron Stadium to face defending PTC champion Bangor (8-1), the No.2 seed. The Cougars’ last loss came at Cameron, a 39-7 drubbing by the Rams that Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said was easily his team’s worst game this season.
“We almost can’t take anything out of it,” Parlin said.
Bangor won that game with limited contributions from tailback Josiah Hartley, who left the game in the first half with a concussion. Hartley sat out the next two games, but the 220-pound senior was the centerpiece of the offense last week in the Rams’ 16-0 quarterfinal win over Edward Little, rushing 34 times for 190 yards and three touchdowns.
Parlin said the Rams have started to look like a vintage run-oriented Bangor team, and Mt. Blue feels it needs to shut down one part of the offense. But the Rams can make them pay for focusing too much on the run because Joe Seccarreccia is one of the top quarterbacks in the state.
Seccarreccia, a tough run-stopping safety, was limited to just playing offense last week due to a shoulder injury he suffered in the final regular-season game against Brewer. If the 6-foot-6 senior is a one-way player again this week, that could help Mt. Blue’s running game, Parlin said. Seccarrecia is the Rams’ leading tackler “with a great knack for knowing when to crowd the line of scrimmage for the run or stay back for the pass,” Parlin said.
The Cougars will have a different look in their backfield than the first time they faced the Rams. At that time, they were still reeling from losing leading rusher Izaiaha Tracy for the year to a leg injury. Eric Berry has stabilized the position since moving from receiver to tailback the week after the Bangor loss, and Parlin said he is cleared to go Friday night after leaving last week’s 20-12 win over Cony with injured ribs.
Cam Sennick will be a focal point for the Bangor defense. The junior accounted for nearly one-third of the Cougars’ total offense in the first game with a 74-yard touchdown run and led them with 51 yards rushing last week.
Defending Class B champion Leavitt (9-0) rode workhorse tailback Josh Strickland to the title last year, and the ground game has played a vital part in the Hornets extending their state-high winning streak to 21 games going into their semifinal with No. 5 Belfast (5-4).
Running the ball has never been a concern for the Hornets, with QB Jordan Hersom on the option or tailback Jake Ouellette behind Leavitt’s athletic offensive line. But coach Mike Hathaway is happy with how his offense has rounded into form in recent weeks.
“I think we have much better balance coming into the end of the season than we did early in the season,” he said. “We’ve been able to throw the ball fairly well, against Gardiner the last game of the season and last week against Morse.”
Hathaway said Hersom, a junior, and his receivers have been on the same page the last couple of weeks, and the return of Hersom’s top target, Lucas Witham from a separated shoulder, has been a big boost.
Leavitt blew out Belfast, 55-14, in Week 3, bu the Lions are a very different football team from then in terms of confidence. The turning point came three weeks later, when they upset Gardiner, 34-28. Since then, the Lions have been pounding opponents into submission, including Camden Hills in the quarterfinals, 50-0, behind quarterback Brad Reed and running backs Dylan Webster and Lani Eversage.
“I think the win against Gardiner gave them a lot of confidence. They’re playing more fundamentally-sound football since that game and I think they’re playing with a little more urgency since then, because they believe in themselves,” Hathaway said.
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