HEBRON – Playing the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl without a Mountain Valley Falcon on the field is like playing an international baseball tournament without the Cubans.
After going Falcon-less in 2004, the organizers of the Lobster Bowl wisely decided that one year without someone clad in silver and cobalt blue was enough.
The dilemma was, which among the team’s 10 graduating seniors to take, especially if they wanted someone to represent the Falcons’ dominating defense that led them to the first state championship in school history last fall.
“It’s kind of hard to take just a few people from a team defense,” defensive end Pat Knapp said.
Knapp, fellow defensive end Chris Lever and defensive back Korey Staires earned the distinction of being chosen for this year’s Lobster Bowl, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Waterhouse Field. Tickets are $10 for reserved seats, $7 for general admission and can be purchased at the gate, at Kora Temple, or from any Shriner.
Watching the core of his championship defense practice and play together one final time makes this a bittersweet week for Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward, who represented the Falcons last year as the head coach of the West and is an assistant this year.
“Truthfully, I wish I could coach all 10 of the (2004 seniors) I coached. We had such a great group of seniors,” said Aylward, who is the defensive coordinator for the West. “But having these three kids here is awesome. They’re great football players, but by the end of the week, I know everyone around them will realize they’re really good.”
The trio may have been overlooked as individuals in the Mountain Valley defense because, collectively, Mountain Valley had the most dominating defense in Class B last year. Following an opening-night loss to York, the defense pulled together and put the team’s fate on its shoulders, allowing just 71 points over the next 11 games.
“Coming from that first loss against York, that motivated the whole team, offense and defense to play harder, and I guess our defense kind of took off from that,” said Knapp, who’s heading to Maine Maritime in the fall to study marine biology and play football. “We didn’t want any more points scored against us.”
“I think our defense was good because all of us did our own jobs,” said Lever, who will study history and education and play football at Stonehill College. “If Pat was supposed to contain, then he would contain and not rush in to get the fullback dive. He would do his job and everyone else would do what they were supposed to do.”
In Lever and Knapp’s case, that usually meant funneling ball-carriers to middle linebacker Travis Fergola, who gobbled up running backs voraciously. Against the passing game, both were speed rushers who swarmed opposing QBs seemingly at the snap of the football.
“I’ll tell you what, Chris and Pat Knapp will make plays on Friday night,” Aylward said. “They’re so quick. When you put a kid like that on an offensive tackle at this level, and they’re coming off the corner, they’re so hard to block. They’ll be in the backfield every play Friday night, guarantee it.”
Venturing into the West’s defensive backfield could be a risky proposition for the East, because that’s where Staires, a heady all-state back who made x’s and o’s his specialty his senior year at Mountain Valley, will be patrolling.
Aylward recalled that prior to the state showdown with Winslow, he had 100 plays scouted for Staires to draw up on the chalkboard in the coach’s office. Staires had most of the coverages for those plays figured out before the coaches told him what they were game-planning.
“When you have a kid who actually speaks the same language that you do after four years of coaching him, that’s awesome,” Aylward said. “You can see what a smart kid he is here. Right off, he’s taken a leadership position in our secondary. It kind of makes you proud.”
The pride of finally bringing a state championship to the football-frenzied Rumford-Mexico area has settled in for the Falcons.
The trio of players reunited for one last game is taking the opportunity to savor it.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Staires, who will likely be playing his last football game Friday before heading to Central Maine Community College.
“It was just a huge team effort. We all had such great friendships, it just made it even better.”
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