Gray-New Gloucester doubled its win total from last season with last week’s 37-21 triumph over Greely, but the new-look Patriots aren’t done yet.

First-year head coach Shawn Austin, who coached at Greely for four years, downplayed the personal significance of the win, but said it was a big confidence boost for the 2-1 Patriots.

“As I’ve said, I had good and bad experiences with Greely. To me, it was just another win,” Austin said. “To the kids, it was everything. They’ve had not a lot of luck with that team in the past, and it felt really rewarding for them to be successful.”

Taylor Valente, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound senior, led the Patriots with 272
yards and four touchdowns rushing against Greely, his second four-touchdown game this season.

Moving Valente from quarterback to fullback has been perhaps the biggest change implemented by Austin. Junior Heath Martell
has taken over under center and improved every week, and shifty senior
Ryan Blank has provided a nice change-of-pace to the straight ahead
Valente in the backfield.

“The key has been the commitment from the kids themselves,” Austin said. “They’ve been passionate about changing things up.”

Gray-New Gloucester could get an inside track on a Campbell Conference playoff spot if they can beat 2-1 York Friday night in York, although Austin wouldn’t go so far as to call it a statement game for the Patriots.

“We certainly feel we can compete, but we’re not a position yet where we feel we can stand confidently and say we are going to beat somebody. We’re going to stand and fight. You’re going to have to fight us for four full quarters, because we’ll keep coming,” Austin said.

Knight games

There is some light at the end of the tunnel for Poland Regional High School.

Three of the Knights’ first four games have been against arguably the Campbell Conference’s top three teams — Cape Elizabeth, York and, Friday night, Mountain Valley. Injuries and illness forced some key personnel to the sidelines, making the brutal stretch even tougher.

“We basically had to put in a couple of different formations because of that,” Soehren said. “(Last) week, we solidified the plays we’re running, so we’re really trying to execute what we’re capable of doing and knowing what our assignments are.”

Soehren and his staff, which includes former Lake Region head coach Chuck Hamaty and veteran Oxford Hills area youth coach Chuck Martin, have seen signs of progress despite the Knights’ 0-3 start. Senior QB Joshua Cooper broke a 78-yard touchdown early in Saturday’s 51-18 loss to York and ended up with 129 yards and two touchdowns rushing. The Knights also rallied from a 31-point halftime deficit to pull within 19 of the Wildcats before giving up a couple of late touchdowns.

“We’ll build on the good stuff we did, which is, we haven’t had any big plays all year, and we had a few of those (against York),” Soehren said. “We ran our option a lot better than we have.”

 Devils down South

Division championships mean nothing in high school football since playoff seedings are based on Crabtree points. Still, Lewiston would like to put some distance between itself and its closest competitor in the PTC South, Brunswick, when the two teams clash on the coast Friday night.

Lewiston hasn’t lost to Brunswick since Dick Leavitt’s final year as the Dragons’ head coach in 2005. With Leavitt as their offesnive coordinator, the Devils have won the last four meetings between the two teams, including a 26-6 victory last year

Lewiston coach Bill County thought his team caught the Dragons at just the right time then. The timing might not be so good this week, though, as Brunswick is coming off a heartbreaking 18-15 loss to Messalonskee.

“We went there last year and stole a win in Week 1, and by the end of the year, I honestly think Brunswick might have been one of the best teams in the conference,” County said. “We’ve got to go back there and play our best game to be successful.”