The Falmouth Navigators have more than lived up to the expectation of being one of Maine’s most improved high school football teams.

In Spencer Emerson’s first year leading the program, Falmouth is the only team in the state to open with back-to-back shutouts.

“We’ve talked a lot about pursuing the ball with what I say is, ‘fanatical effort,’ ” Emerson said. “There’s just so much energy and effort. We have a lot of kids flying to the football — we gang-tackle, we swarm-tackle — and right now, defensively, we’ve really hit our stride.”

Falmouth’s defense was a stone wall in Week 1, giving up only 26 yards in a 14-0 victory over Cheverus. It was slightly less dominant Friday night in a 46-0 win at Skowhegan, allowing 156 yards. But the result was still a shutout with the Navigators limiting the River Hawks to 1 of 8 on third downs.

Falmouth has a little of everything. In Owen Bombardier and Thomas Gale, the Navigators have size on the line. They have athleticism in linebacker Indi Backman and defensive backs Luke Roy and Matthew Grace. All three played with Gale on last spring’s Class A title-winning lacrosse team.

“Coming in here, I really didn’t know what to expect but I knew we had great athletes,” Emerson said. “We have a lot of kids that were on that state championship lacrosse team and the regional final baseball team. These are kids who know to win and do their job, and they understand assignments and how to move as a unit.”

Having depth, Emerson said, doesn’t hurt. That’s a key difference between this year’s team, which has 47 players, and the 2023 squad that played much of the season with a roster in the 20s.

The Navigators have already matched last season’s win total (2-6) and will look to surpass it Friday against Cony.

While Falmouth is the only team with two shutouts in two games, Deering, just five miles down the road in Portland, has held its first two opponents to single digits. The Rams followed up their impressive 35-8 win over Marshwood in Week 1 by topping Biddeford 56-7 on Friday.

Wells, which gave up only 25 points across six games against Class D South opponents in 2023, started league play on a solid defensive note by topping Freeport 28-6 on Friday. That followed a 40-0 shutout of Class C South Cape Elizabeth in Week 1.

Wells led Freeport 21-0 until the Falcons, midway through the fourth quarter, mounted the lone scoring drive of the season against the Warriors. Coach Tim Roche said the Warriors took Freeport’s touchdown personally, which showed when Wells went back on offense.

“Our kids were livid when they scored. They just had this attitude of, ‘How did that happen?’ ” Roche said. “I think that’s a good thing to have because a lot of defense is about having an attitude. I think we’re starting to get that with this group, seeing that attitude develop. It’s something we want to develop with our defense.”

In the eight-man large school ranks, Camden Hills has been particularly solid on defense with only six points allowed, tied with Wells for the second-fewest behind Falmouth. The Windjammers beat a Greely team with a solid passing game 14-6 in Week 1 before topping Yarmouth 30-0 on Friday.

As for eight-man small, look no further than two longtime Little Ten Conference stalwarts: Orono and Stearns. The reigning small school state champion Red Riots followed a 56-6 Week 1 win over Dexter with a 46-6 victory over defending large school champion Mount Desert Island on Friday, while the Minutemen dispatched Bucksport 60-8 in Week 1 and Dexter 54-6 in Week 2.

Bonny Eagle running back Connor Johnson picks up yards during a scrimmage against Massabesic earlier this year. On Friday night Johnson rushed for two touchdowns to help the Scots beat Oxford Hills 27-10 to avoid an 0-2 start. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

BOUNCE-BACK BOYS: Second-week victories were especially sweet for teams that rebounded from Week 1 losses.

Fifteen teams claimed Week 2 wins after losing their openers. They hailed from all six classes across the state, from Class A, where Bonny Eagle avoided a rare 0-2 start, to the eight-man ranks, where teams that suffered season-opening defeats claimed blowout wins.

Bonny Eagle’s opponent, Oxford Hills, also was trying to rebound from an opening loss, but the Scots, who made avoiding their first 0-2 start since 2015 a point of emphasis, took down the Vikings, 27-10.

“Our biggest worry was going 0-2,” said C.J. Cooper, a Bonny Eagle wide receiver and senior co-captain. “We really had to work hard this week in practice.”

Sanford made it two Class A teams recovering from Week 1 losses by defeating Scarborough, 35-25. In Class B, Marshwood defeated Westbrook 41-20, Gardiner beat Mt. Blue 14-7 in overtime and Messalonskee claimed a 35-34 overtime win against Hermon.

Messalonskee’s win unfolded similarly to its Week 1 loss to Cony. The Eagles again fell behind, this time 21-7 , yet just as they did the week before in nearly coming back from a 33-7 deficit, they recovered to turn it into a back-and-forth game.

In the final seconds of regulation, Messalonskee stopped Hermon on the 6-yard line to maintain a tie. The Eagles then began overtime with a touchdown and extra point to take a 35-28 lead, and although the Hawks answered, a 2-point try for the win was stuffed inches shy of the goal line.

“The refs conferred about it for about 10 seconds and I felt like I was going to get sick; it was the longest 10 seconds of my life,” said Messalonskee Coach Blair Doucette. “It was a 144-play game and we had nine kids who played both ways. I’m really proud of them.”

Leavitt (42-0 over Brunswick), Cape Elizabeth (14-7 over Poland) and Medomak Valley (32-6 over Nokomis) won in Class C. In Class D, Dirigo (14-13 over Oak Hill), Mountain Valley (42-6 over Maranacook), Maine Central Institute (21-12 over Old Town) and Mattanawcook Academy (47-36 over Belfast) moved to 1-1.

Four eight-man teams who fell in their openers won blowouts in Week 2. Greely (56-0 over Waterville) and Gray-New Gloucester (65-26 over Sacopee Valley) posted large school wins, and Traip Academy (32-8 over Telstar) and Washington Academy (54-22 over St. John Valley) won in small school.

Gray-New Gloucester’s win over Sacopee was the product of strong passing. Kobi Conant completed 11-of-16 passes for 191 yards and five touchdowns, three by Kody Tracy, who totaled 141 receiving yards on those three receptions.

“We knew (Sacopee) had some corners that played up,” said Gray-New Gloucester Coach Mike Caiazzo. “I felt that they couldn’t compete with our receivers and we wanted to take advantage of that. … Kody and I talked about it all week, preparing for Sacopee Valley, and how you need to slide up. Don’t roll into the cover; just slide up.”

Washington Academy’s 54-22 win over St. John Valley marked its first in Maine Principals’ Association play since 2018. After a winless 2019 season and the COVID-canceled 2020 campaign, the Raiders opted out of the 2021 season due to low numbers. They played in the Maine Independent Football League in 2022 and 2023.

GOOD CAUSE GROWS ON: Seven years ago, Cony Coach B.L. Lippert started an annual tradition when his Rams played in the first Autism Awareness Game against Lawrence. Cony won that game, a preseason encounter, 7-6.

Friday’s Autism Awareness Game against Lawrence, then, was a throwback to the game’s origins. The Rams improved to 7-0 on Autism Awareness Night with a 42-21 victory over the Bulldogs in a rematch of last year’s Class B North championship game.

“We’re (unbeaten) on Autism Awareness Night, so maybe we should schedule another for November,” Lippert joked. “We thought, ‘Man, Lawrence for our home opener on Autism Awareness Night, that’s a tough one,’ but we went out and got it done.”

Since the event’s inception in 2017, more and more teams have worn gray shirts featuring red, blue and yellow puzzle pieces. Lippert, whose son, Lincoln, has autism, said coaching staffs from 39 teams — more than half the total in Maine — wore the shirts this season.

One of them was Gardiner, which pulled out a 14-7 overtime victory against Mt. Blue. The Tigers’ staff includes Coach Pat Munzing’s son, Owen, who is unable to play football because of a connective tissue disorder but is still part of the team as its manager.

“It’s amazing that we’re having these conversations about kids with disabilities,” Munzing said. “That’s that inclusiveness. Regardless of the disability, these kids take in everyone. It means so much more in the bigger plan of who we are as a society, and who we are as communities to open up and do these kinds of things, and shed some light on this.”

The efforts, though, are going beyond shirts and banners — schools are making real change in promoting autism inclusivity. At Lake Region, for example, autism-friendly sensory bags with earphones, fidget spinners and other items that might aid those on the spectrum are available for purchase at concession stands.

“They’ve taken this idea and expanded it to be more inclusive, and I never envisioned that,” Lippert said. “Now it’s grown, and I get emails every year from grandparents, assistant coaches, who thank me. It’s grown to be pretty awesome.”

Nokomis’ Noah Holden celebrates scoring a touchdown against Medomak Valley during a football game Saturday in Newport. The Warriors are wearing new helmets this season, in honor of former Lawrence coach Pete Cooper. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

WINGED WARRIORS: The Nokomis Warriors have a bit of a different look on game days this year — one that means a great deal to Coach Jake Rogers.

Nokomis’ helmets, usually solid maroon, added a black classic winged design in 2024. It’s an homage to the design worn at Lawrence, where Rogers played in the mid-1990s for Coach Pete Cooper. Cooper died in February at age 83.

Cooper amassed a remarkable coaching career at Lawrence, compiling a 205-96-6 record over 28 seasons from 1969-96. He won three Class A state championships (1973, 1983, 1984) and 10 Eastern Maine titles, and was the state’s winningest active coach at the time of his resignation.

Rogers was a sophomore on Lawrence’s 1996 Class A East title-winning team but didn’t play much due to a septic ankle. He even spent time in the hospital during the season, and Cooper, in his final year coaching the Bulldogs, visited him frequently.

“The way he coached later in life, I try to take away a lot of that — just who he was and the respect he had for his players,” Rogers said. “I’ve always wanted to do the wing anyways, and this year, with him passing away, I thought it would be a cool little head-nod to him, out of respect.”

Rogers said Nokomis players, who were a decade away from being born when Cooper coached his final game, initially thought the design was a reference to the wing-T offense. Once Rogers shared stories of who Cooper was and what he meant, the players were extremely receptive.

“I explained it to them at the beginning of the season and they really appreciated it,” Rogers said. “Even though he was (well before their time), they liked hearing the stories about him and how he was as a man. He was just a good person and a good coach to have.”

Portland’s Cordell Jones is taken down by a pair of Windham defenders during the Bulldogs’ 29-7 victory at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Portland is 2-0 with impressive wins against Class A North foes Oxford Hills and Windham.

But Coach Sean Green wasn’t thrilled by the Bulldogs’ second half in Friday night’s 29-7 home win against Windham, particularly the failure to convert a fourth-and-goal from the 1 after giving up a 10-play Windham scoring drive.

“I like our team’s purpose. I like their intent,” Green said. “We’ve got to get tougher. We’ve got to finish football games. We’ve got to be better in the second half.

“We’re not a deep football team by any means, and guys are playing both ways,” Green added. “We’re going to get tired and we need to understand that tired is not a physical thing. It’s a mental thing. And we need to have the mental toughness to finish games. And we didn’t do that (against Windham). Getting down to the 1-yard line and not being able to score — that’s not our brand of football.”

Portland will be at Bonny Eagle on Friday.

Staff writers Steve Craig of the Press Herald, Nathan Fournier of the Sun Journal and Dave Dyer of the Kennebec Journal contributed to this report.