Portland’s Cordell Jones is taken down by a pair of Windham defenders during the Bulldogs’ 29-7 victory Sept. 13 at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland. The top-seeded Bulldogs host the fourth-seeded Eagles in the Class A North semifinals Friday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

The Class A playoffs begin this week and Portland is ready to defend its home field.

The Bulldogs (7-2) enter the Class A North football playoffs as the top seed and hope to be playing at Fitzpatrick Stadium through the state final Nov. 23.

“To be able to play, you know, on our home field throughout the playoffs, as long as we advance, is definitely something that we try and strive for,” Portland Coach Sean Green said.

The Bulldogs will take on fourth-seeded Windham (3-6) at 6 p.m. Friday. They defeated the Eagles 29-7 in the second week of the regular season.

“So we know that we have to prepare at the highest level, have an extreme sense of urgency,” Green said. “And if we do those things, we feel pretty good in any game.”

The other A North semifinal game is between two teams on three-game winning streaks: second-seeded Lewiston (5-3) and third-seeded Bangor (4-5).

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The Blue Devils defeated the Rams 10-7 in Week 2 on a last-second field goal by Michael Caron.

Defending state champion Thornton Academy (7-2) is the top seed in A South. The Golden Trojans defense has posted two straight shutouts and allowed only 21 points in the past four games.

“I think we’ve played pretty good defense, certainly the second half of the season, better since the Noble game,” Thornton Academy Coach Kevin Kezal said, referring to a 33-26 victory over the Knights on Oct. 4. “I thought we played well against South Portland the first time. I thought, you know, the Portland game was a game we played pretty well. So I think we’ve played pretty well the last half of the season.”

Thornton hosts No. 4 South Portland (5-4) in the semifinals this weekend. The Golden Trojans beat the Red Riots, 35-7 on Oct. 11, but Kezal said the defense will need to be sharp and ready for everything.

“You know, offensively, they’re really diverse,” Kezal said. “They run a lot of formations. They do a lot of motions and shifts and stuff. So you’ve got to be very sound.”

The other A South semifinal features second-seeded Bonny Eagle (7-2) against third-seeded Noble (7-2) on Friday. The Scots won the regular-season meeting 21-14 in Oct. 25.

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IT’S HARD TO KNOW what to expect in a Class C North region that’s been fairly even at the top this season. One thing that can be counted on when Nokomis faces Medomak Valley and Oceanside plays Hermon in the semifinals is gaudy rushing totals. 

The top threat for No. 3 Nokomis (5-4) is Seth Bowden, who’s rushed for 1,059 yards and 14 touchdowns on 170 carries. Stephone Ross has also come on strong recently, rushing 16 times, 145 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s quarterfinal win over Brewer.

“It’s really become a two-headed monster the past four weeks with the two of them,” said Nokomis Coach Jake Rogers. “(Stephone) has progressed a lot, and we’ve been able to be pretty balanced. We had (two 40-plus-yard runs) on Saturday, and I think those were two of our longest runs of the season.”

Nokomis’ Seth Bowden looks for a passing option against Medomak Valley during a September game in Newport. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Nokomis faces No. 2 Medomak Valley (6-2), which boasts one of the top newcomers in the state this year, freshman Jaydiin Ruiz (1,011 yards, 12 touchdowns). He is joined by fellow running backs Shamus Pease, Porter Gahagan and Wyatt Simmons.

“They’re a team that’s a lot like us, in that they rely on multiple backs,” said Rogers, whose team lost 32-6 to the Panthers in Week 2. “They run it a lot with Ruiz and (Gahagan), and they’re even using Gabe Lash back there now. … We have to stop them, and we can’t have missed opportunities.”

Quarterback Zeb Foster has been a monster for No. 5 Oceanside (5-4), rushing for 1,783 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns. The senior has a beefy line in front of him, led by 280-pound Maddox McMahan and 320-pound Brady Proctor, and he’s not the only weapon in the run game.

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“We’re getting healthier,” said Oceanside Coach Sam Weiss. “We got back Robbie Blair, and he ran for 200 against Hampden (in the regional quarterfinals). When you can’t just worry about Zeb because you have to worry about Robbie and Matthew Bodman on the edge, we become a lot more scary.”

Hermon (6-2) is the top seed for the first time in program history and boasts running back Bruce Coulter. He and Sam Hopkins will lead a strong rushing attack for the Hawks, who beat the Mariners, 31-6, in the regular season.

FOSTER’S EMERGENCE AT QB is a big shift from his role as a junior in 2023. With Cohen Galley at quarterback and Aiden Sergent at running back, Foster didn’t throw the ball and rarely carried it while playing primarily at wide receiver.

“If I’m not mistaken, he had negative rushing yards last year,” Weiss said. “He never had a chance to play quarterback; he played one time as a seventh-grader, and then he’s played receiver. We didn’t really have a backup (after Cohen), so he got thrown to the wolves, but he’s made it work.”

Foster threw the ball some early in the season in Weiss’ spread offense, throwing for 143 yards in Oceanside’s Week 3 victory over York. Since injuring his throwing hand, though, he rarely drops back to pass – in fact, he didn’t throw once in Oceanside’s 40-30 win over Hampden Academy on Friday.

That’s been an adjustment for Weiss, whose offense racked up big yardage with Galley throwing the ball in 2022 and 2023. Yet even if Oceanside’s offense looks a little different than he expected this fall, he’s not about to argue with the results.

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“He’s just been playing lights-out,” Weiss said of Foster. “As more of a modern football thinker, it hurts me that we can’t throw, but it gets the job done.”

ONE OF THE QUESTIONS surrounding Lawrence entering the season was how its offensive line would perform. The unit was replacing three starters and took some time to jell, but it appears to be finally coming together.

Xayvier Garcia (left guard), Brady Richards (right guard), Gabe Johnson (right tackle) and Dawson More (tight end) have fit in nicely with returning starters Davin Bolduc (center) and Connor Mayo (left tackle). The group had its way with Skowhegan in a 42-13 win on Friday in a Class B North quarterfinal, when the No. 3 Bulldogs (6-3) gained 431 total yards, including 372 on the ground.

The Lawrence football team warms up before a quarterfinal game against Skowhegan on Friday in Fairfield. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

The line’s improvement has been evident in the success of Colton Carter, who ran for 201 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries against the River Hawks, a week after rushing for 368 yards and four scores against Hampden in the regular-season finale. Preston Roy had 97 yards rushing and a touchdown Friday.

“Some of the things that we weren’t quite doing at the beginning of the season, they knew but didn’t quite have enough practice to get the execution down,” said Lawrence Coach John Hersom, whose team faces No. 2 Cony (5-3) in the regional semifinals on Friday. “We’re executing pretty well (now).”

SACOPEE VALLEY QUARTERBACK Tyler Easterbrooks made an impact in his return from a two-game absence after having his appendix removed Oct. 17.

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Easterbrooks led the Hawks to a 42-28 victory over Spruce Mountain in the eight-man Small School South semifinals on Friday. He ran for 173 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and completed 8 of 20 passes for 79 yards and a score.

Without Easterbrooks a week earlier, No. 3 Sacopee Valley lost to the second-seeded Phoenix, 44-12.

“I think that it just instilled confidence in our whole team,” Hawks Coach Eric Schroeder said. “And Spruce came right out of the gate firing – they went right down the field and scored a touchdown. In the third quarter, they brought it back within two points. But I think just having our leader back there again, I don’t think there was ever a doubt that we were just going to keep fighting and hopefully pull off the win, which we did.”

Sacopee Valley (5-4) faces top-seeded Old Orchard Beach (9-0) in the regional final on Friday.

Kennebec Journal writer Dave Dyer contributed to this story.

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