FRYEBURG – Another Monday afternoon, another football practice.

But this wasn’t your typical start of the work week for the Fryeburg Academy Raiders.

Before practice began, head coach Jim “Fuzzy” Thurston urged his team to take a walk around their downtown campus and absorb as much as they could.

“I told the kids, ‘Check out the sights and the smells and the sounds and everything, then come on over to the practice field.’ I said, ‘Enjoy it, because you’ve never, ever been here this week,'” he said.

The players probably noticed that the sun was a little lower in the sky, the air was a bit crisper and there were fewer leaves on the trees than they were used to. That’s because Fryeburg Academy is playing later into the fall than it has in a long time, and certainly later than it has since the current playoff format was established 20 years ago.

The 7-2 Raiders are making their Campbell Conference postseason debut Friday night as the third seed, and will travel to Rumford to face second-seeded Mountain Valley, a team they led, 14-7, at halftime of their regular-season meeting in September, but eventually lost to, 35-14.

“It’s the season that we’ve always dreamed about having,” said Tyler Thurston, a senior guard/linebacker and the coach’s son. “It’s nice having everyone’s support around campus. They’re all excited to go to the game on Friday.”

The Raiders posted their second winning record in the last two decades this season. With 13 seniors among 17 starters returning from last year’s 2-7 campaign, there was much reason for optimism and autumn excitement that for once had nothing to do with the fairgrounds a mile down the road.

But the Raiders knew that in order to back up that optimism with results, they had to show the kind of maturity that can come from so much experience. That meant stressing personal accountability.

“Last year, we always tried to blame our failings on something else,” said senior running back Sequoyah Reynoso. “This time, we’re taking responsibility for it and actually working to improve your own failings rather than trying to find scapegoats.”

“We knew that we were going to have to step it up because we were going to be one of the older teams in the league,” Tyler Thurston said. “That just meant a lot of hard work over the summer, playing summer league football and getting into the weight room and working hard, off-season and in-season.”

They saw that hard work starting to pay off during 7-on-7 football over the summer, where they held their own against a number of Class A schools.

The Raiders played like they were in midseason form during their exhibition opener against Dirigo, and it confirmed that they were making the strides they hoped to make.

“I think that’s when we realized that this is our season,” Tyler Thurston said.

But their coach didn’t want them to get ahead of themselves. Tough tests against traditional Campbell Conference powers York, Wells and Mountain Valley loomed, but it was important to keep their sights set straight ahead week to week.

“The one thing we’ve been working on all year long is one game at a time. We have absolutely not focused on the ‘what ifs,'” coach Thurston said. “I have forced them to focus on what are our short-term goals.”

The Raiders opened the season by beating Falmouth, then losing to unbeaten Cape Elizabeth. They then held on to beat Wells, 20-18. The veteran offensive line set the tone each game. Junior quarterback Preston Jones emerged as a passing and running threat in the Radiers’ spread offense. Reynoso emerged as one of the most explosive running backs in the conference and a team leader.

“Another coach was telling me the major difference he sees between Sequoyah and a lot of other running backs in the conference is with two or three steps, Sequoyah’s at full speed. Other kids may be as fast, but it takes them a little longer to get there,” coach Thurston said. “And he’s a good leader, a great citizen, an excellent student. He’s number one in his class.”

Fryeburg will be facing a team this week that Thurston considers to be number one in their class, Mountain Valley. The Raiders said they gained confidence from that game, knowing they could move the ball against the Falcon defense (they ran for over 200 yards), and they think they’re a better team than the one that shot itself in the foot with bad snaps and fumbles.

“The fact that we did fall (in the second half), I think, had a little bit to do with prior lack of confidence,” Reynoso said. “But…we haven’t lost since.”

Indeed, Fryeburg followed the loss with a 48-6 drubbing of Poland and a 27-20 victory over York, in what was perhaps the biggest game in the program’s history since 1984, when it lost what was essentially the old Southern York League title game to rival Lake Region and missed a chance to go to the state championship game.

Fryeburg isn’t willing to let any more chances pass it by.

“When you’ve been on the short end of the stick for as long as we have, you learn what it feels like and you learn that you really don’t want to be there any longer,” Reynoso said. “The more you’ve been the anvil, the more you want to be the hammer.”