High school football notebook

Learning on the fly

Monday night's Poland-Falmouth game demonstrated the vast difference in how the two Western Class B schools launched their football programs.

Falmouth followed Cape Elizabeth and Greely's lead by moving into the Campbell Conference earlier this decade after sculpting its youth program through the lower grades for years. The Yachtsmen, top-heavy with underclassmen who have proven themselves ready for prime time this fall, have a chance to cement their second straight winning season by beating Greely this weekend.

Poland entered the fray the same year, in 2003. But with the exception of a few then-juniors and seniors who had played for various youth organizations in the area, the Knights started essentially from scratch.

That inaugural team won its first varsity game. Highlights have been sporadic since. Poland has yet to celebrate a season on the plus side of the .500 ledger. Barring an upset of Gray-New Gloucester on Saturday, the Knights will finish 0-9 in '09.

There is hope, however, as Poland continues to hang in for a quarter and even a half at a time with the league's middle-of-the-pack teams.

"We have six seniors and play a bunch of freshmen," said Poland coach Mark Soehren. "It's a very young group."

One of the upperclassmen, quarterback Josh Cooper, led a triple option offense that churned out over 200 yards in the 36-7 loss to Falmouth.

Juniors Connor King, Jake Moody, Cam Woodford and David Whittier and sophomore Christian Hanscom were instrumental in a defensive effort that kept the Yachtsmen within arm's length, 7-0, at the half.

"I think we had a few (Falmouth) holding penalties that might have helped us out, but those guys did a nice job," Soehren said.

And that feeder system? It's finally growing. Poland, Mechanic Falls and Minot's Tri-Town junior high recreational team recently completed a 7-0 campaign.

Streaks stopped

The two longest winning streaks in the state came to a screeching halt last Friday night.

Mountain Valley's 19-game Class B run evaporated in a 33-14 loss to York, while John Bapst saw its surge end at 18 with a 46-15 verdict against Foxcroft.

With all three reigning state champions now having tasted defeat this season, it doesn't take a long memory or an abacus to calculate which teams now share the longest current streak. The last standing unbeaten teams in each region are knotted at eight consecutive wins: Bangor (Eastern A), Thornton (Western A), Leavitt (Eastern B), Cape Elizabeth (Western B), Foxcroft (Eastern C) and Dirigo (Western C).