Football: Three area teams playing for state championships Saturday

A swarm of Leavitt Area High School defenders stop a Cape Elizabeth ball carrier during the Class C South championship game Saturday at Lewiston High School. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Three area football teams will compete in state championship games this Saturday.

The Maine Principals’ Association announced the kickoff times for the four state finals Monday. This year, the Class A, B, C and D title games will be spread across two different locations on Saturday, different from recent years when one was played Friday night in Orono or Bangor and three were held at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland on Saturday.

The Class A and B state title games will still be played at Fitzpatrick Stadium:

• Class A: Oxford Hills (10-0) vs. Thornton (8-2), 11 a.m.
• Class B: North champion Skowhegan (9-2) vs. South champion Portland (8-3), 2:30 p.m.

Class C and D will play their state title games at Cameron Stadium in Bangor:

• Class D: Lisbon (7-3) vs. Foxcroft (9-1), 11 a.m.
• Class C: North champ Medomak Valley (9-2) vs. South champ Leavitt (10-0), 2:30 p.m.

THE CLASS A final is a rematch of last year’s final, in which Thornton Academy defeated Oxford Hills 42-27 to claim its 10th state title.

Oxford Hills’ Jake Carson takes on Bonney Eagle’s Hayden Campbell during Friday’s Class A semifinal football game Paris. Carson scored on the play. Brewster Burns photo

The Vikings, though, picked up this season where they left off in 2021, only, somehow, they have been better. They beat the Golden Trojans 25-20 in Saco in Week 2 despite Oxford Hills losing several players to injury — including starting quarterback and last year’s Gatorade and Class A player of the year Eli Soehren early in the game. The Vikings have rarely been challenged for a full four quarters this season.

Thornton started 2020 slow, losing two of its first three games — in Week 3, the Golden Trojans fell to Bedford of New Hampshire — then barely beating Kennebunk 15-13 on Sept. 24. However, since the start of October, Thornton has been on a roll, scoring at least 38 points in all but one game and holding all but one opponent to single-digit scoring.

The Golden Trojans have been the class of Class A over the past decade, winning five state championships since 2012. The Vikings are playing in their third state final, having lost their first two, last year and in 1999.

LEAVITT HAS DOMINATED all its opponents this year, whether they be from Class A, Class B — the Hornets routed B South champion Portland 42-8 — or Class C. The one team that played them close in the regular season was Cape Elizabeth. Leavitt survived that game with a 21-20 victory. The teams’ second meeting wasn’t nearly as close. In Saturday’s C South final, the Hornets scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and then added a pair of clutch scores late in the first half to take a four-score lead into halftime, on their way to a 43-0 win.

Leavitt has won seven state titles, its most recent in 2019, while Medomak Valley is playing in its first state final.

The Panthers outclassed C North this season, and their only blemishes were to Class D’s Lisbon and Freeport.

CLASS D FINALISTS Lisbon and Foxcroft are meeting in a state final for the fifth time. The Greyhounds beat the Ponies in the Class C title game in 1997, 2005 and 2006, while Foxcroft topped Lisbon for the 2003 championship.

Lisbon’s Canaan Cameron tackles Freeport’s Jordan Knighton for a loss of yards during the first half of Friday night’s Class D semifinal in Freeport. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

This year’s Class D championship is a matchup of the two most recent state champions and a rematch of a close regular-season game won by Lisbon, 14-13, on Sept. 23. That was the Ponies’ only loss this season, and other than that and a 28-27 overtime win over Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale, no opponent has finished within two scores of them.

The Greyhounds, meanwhile, keep taking down Class D teams with a run-oriented offense and strong defense. That formula limited the Ponies’ offensive opportunities in the teams’ first matchup. Since that game, in which Lisbon came away empty-handed on a few long drives, the Greyhounds’ offense has been better and finishing its scoring opportunities.

Foxcroft won its eighth state title last year, while Lisbon claimed its 11st championship in the 2019 Class D final.

THE CLASS B final is the only of Saturday’s four state title games that doesn’t involve an area team. Portland is making its first appearance in a Class B state title game, though the Bulldogs have won three Class A crowns, the most recent in 2002. Skowhegan has won six Class B titles.

Two football state champions were crowned this past Saturday. Old Orchard Beach continued its scorching postseason with a convincing 46-22 win over Orono in the 8-man Small School final, and Yarmouth took down Waterville 30-26 in the 8-man Large School title game.