Four area football team still in hunt for state titles

Two weekends remain in the high school football season, and Leavitt, Lisbon, Oxford Hills and Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale are one win away from reaching their classifications’ state championship games.

CLASS A

Oxford Hills (9-0) returns to action after a bye week to host Bonny Eagle (6-4) in the Class A semifinals Friday at 6 p.m. at Gouin Athletic Complex in Paris. Bonny Eagle advanced to the semifinals by defeating No. 4 Scarborough 14-13 last week.

Oxford Hills’ Hunter Tardiff, left, and Lincoln Merrill combine to take down Scarborough’s Tim Crockett during an Oct. 28 game at Gouin Athletic Complex in Paris. Brewster Burns photo

The top-seeded Vikings have defeated the fifth-seeded Scots three times over the past two seasons, including 41-17 on Oct. 7 and 34-7 in last year’s Class A semifinals.

The 17 points Bonny Eagle scored in last month’s matchup are the second-most scored on Oxford Hills this season. The game was close at halftime — the Oxford Hills held a 6-3 lead at the break — but the Vikings scored five second-half touchdowns while holding the Scots to two scores.

Oxford Hills and Bonny Eagle were the only Maine teams to earn victories over New Hampshire schools in the inaugural season of interstate competition.

The winner of Friday’s game in Paris advances to the Class A state title game, where it will face the winner of the other semifinal, between second-seeded and defending state champion Thornton (7-2) and No. 6 Sanford (6-4), which beat Lewiston in thrilling fashion in last week’s quarterfinals.

CLASS C SOUTH

In the 2021 Class C South final, Cape Elizabeth finished the game with a 10-minute drive that ended with 3-yard touchdown run with three seconds remaining to beat Leavitt 25-23. The Capers went on to win the Class C title game and earn the program’s state championship.

Cape Elizabeth’s Mike Foley gets taken down by Leavitt’s Noah Carpenter, lower right, as Leavitt’s Dayton Calder, left, and Maddox Demers, upper right, run toward the play during the Hornets’ 21-20 win Oct. 7 in Turner. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

When the teams met earlier this season, on Oct. 7, Leavitt won 21-20. The third-seeded Capers are the only team to finish within two scores of the top-seeded Hornets (9-0), who tore through a schedule this season that included Class A and Class B playoff teams.

Another close game is to be expected when Leavitt and Cape Elizabeth again play for the C South title later this week. The game is scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. in Turner, but weather might force it to be moved to a different day or location.

The Hornets reached the regional final with a dominating 64-28 win over fifth-seeded Cheverus, while Cape Elizabeth beat No. 3 Wells 20-14.

The C South champion will face the winner of the C North title game between Hermon (7-3) and Medomak Valley (8-2).

Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale quarterback Owen Harding completes a pass to Brayden Stubbert during a Sept. 2 game against Foxcroft in Winthrop. The Ponies won the season opener 28-27 in overtime. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

CLASS D

Class D’s semifinals are both rematches of Week 1 contests.

Fourth-seeded Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale (6-3) travels to Dover-Foxcroft to face off against top-seeded Foxcroft Academy (8-1) in what also is a rematch of last year’s Class D state title game. The Ponies won the 2021 state championship by beating the Ramblers 19-16.

The teams then opened the 2022 regular season with a showdown that wasn’t decided until Winthrop was stopped on a 2-point conversion in overtime, giving Foxcroft a 28-27 victory.

The two teams seemed poised to again be the top two seeds in Class D. Foxcroft’s lone loss of the season was to Lisbon on Sept. 23, but the Ramblers suffered setbacks to No. 2 Freeport and No. 3 Lisbon — interestingly, all three of Winthrop’s losses were at home this season. However, the difference between the classification’s top four seeds is slim.

The Greyhounds (6-3) play at Freeport (6-3), the site of their only loss this season to a fellow Class D team, on Friday at 6 p.m.

Freeport won the opener 35-22. Lisbon lost its next game to Fryeburg of Class C South, then rumbled through the rest of its Class D schedule, including victories over Foxcroft and Winthrop on the road, with a physical, ball-control running game and a stout defense.

Lisbon’s Caleb Hayes, right, and Jayden Camp, middle, tackle Fryeburg Academy’s Colton McCarthy in the backfield for a loss during a Sept. 9 football game in Lisbon. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

This is the third straight season the Greyhounds have started slow and then found their rhythm in the second half of the regular season. Last year they lost their first three games then won their final three. In 2019, they started 2-2, then found their rhythm and lost only one more game on their way to the program’s 11th state championship.

In the Class D quarterfinals last week, Foxcroft defeated No. 8 Madison/Carrabec/Valley 69-0; Freeport beat seventh-seeded Oak Hill 41-12; Lisbon blanked No. 7 John Bapst/Bangor Christian 41-0; and Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale got past No. 5 Poland 20-9.