Saturday may be the most exciting day of the high school football season, but there were plenty of exciting games played leading up to then. Here are the top 10 in the Sun Journal coverage area:

10. Oak Hill 26, Yarmouth 23, Week 2 — An early seesaw battle between two newcomers to the Campbell Conference. Yarmouth took an early 14-0 lead, then Oak Hill came back for 13 unanswered points. The Clippers held a 20-13 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but Oak Hill responded again with a 1-yard TD run by Brett Turcotte and the point-after kick to tie it. Eric Estabrook gave Yarmouth the lead one last time with a 20-yard field goal, but Turcotte led the Raiders back down the field and found Ben Foss for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 48 seconds left to win it. 

9. Winthrop 13, Lisbon 12, Western C quarterfinal — One week after edging Lisbon, 7-0 to end the regular season, Winthrop put a permanent halt to Lisbon’s season and extended its own. Winthrop rode two Travis Luce-to-Ryan Conant touchdown passes and Conant’s PAT with 7:42 left made the difference. After the Ramblers took an early 6-0 lead, the Greyhounds tied it on a 6-yard TD catch by Chris Whitney. Lisbon took the lead when Scott Eck scored from 45 yards on an interception, but then Winthrop answered with the second Luce-to-Conant connection to set up the critical kick.

8. Cape Elizabeth 23, Mountain Valley 13, Western B final — After Cape pummeled them, 34-0, just three weeks earlier, the Falcons nearly pulled off one of the greatest upsets in their history. Mountain Valley trailed 9-0 early, then stormed back to take a 13-9 lead on runs by Josh Allen and Matt Duka. The Falcon defense frustrated Cape’s explosive offense until the fourth quarter, and the offense looked to put the game virtually out of reach early in the fourth quarter when it got inside the Capers’ 5. On 4th-and-2, the Capers stopped Allen short of the first down. With the clock ticking down, Cape QB Ezra Wolfinger found Kyle Danielson for a 39-yard completion on 3rd-and-17 to extend a late drive. With 2:59 remaining, Wolfinger hooked up with Kyle Piscopo for a 6-yard TD that proved to be the game-winner. Tom Foden interception return for a TD on fourth down ended the Falcons’ hopes of rallying.  

7. Lewiston 29, Cony 26, OT, Week 7 — The Blue Devils sent off their seniors with a memorable final home game. They squandered leads of 14-0 and 26-14, but Caleb Johnson’s late interception inside Lewiston’s 10 preserved the tie in regulation. In overtime, the defense denied the Rams inside the 10 again. The Rams’ ‘D’ looked like it might have an answer to send the game to a second overtime, but Cody Dussault’s 23-yard field goal bounced off the crossbar and over for the game-winner.

6. Mountain Valley 14, York 10, Western B semifinals — It wasn’t the first time Tim Ross picked off a pass late to
preserve a Falcon victory (see later in the countdown), but this one avenged a 19-point loss to the
Wildcats during the regular season. It was the final statement for a
defense that had been trampled upon by York’s ground game in the first
meeting. York took a 10-7 lead with a controversial 18-yard field goal
to end the first half, and maintained that margin until the fourth
quarter, when tailback Matt Duka, who outrushed York by himself (96
yards) scored the game-winner on a five-yard run. York made up for its
sputtering running game by moving the ball through the air, but the
5-foot-8 Ross preserved the victory with a leaping grab on a long pass
by Chris Cole on York’s final drive. 

5. Leavitt 29, Hampden Academy 22, OT, Week 1 — The Hornets’ perfect regular season nearly fell flat from the start, as the Broncos had the ball with a 22-20 play with two minutes left. Backed up deep in their own end, the Broncos had QB Jon Haws roll out left from the end zone. Leavitt’s Lucas Witham saw the play develop and sacked Haws in the end zone to tie the game with a safety. In the extra session, the Hornets’ defense held its ground on four straight pass plays. Hampden’s defense looked like it might respond after stuffing Josh Strickland on two straight running plays, but then QB Eric Theiss took advantage of the Broncos’ obsession with Strickland with a fake to the tailback, then rolled left and strolled into the end zone on third down for the 10-yard game-winning score,

4. Maranacook 34, Oak Hill 29, Week 8 — Needing a win to earn a playoff berth, Maranacook came back from a three points behind late in the fourth quarter to win. After Maranacook rallied from a 20-10 deficit to even the game, Oak Hill took a 29-26 lead on a Josh Prue 1-yard plunge in the fourth quarter. The Black Bears took over from their own 20 with just over eight minutes remaining and churned out a 16-play drive that took them to the doorstep with under a minute to go. Luke Emery scored on 4th-and-goal from the 1 with 51 seconds remaining to put Maranacook in front. Oak Hill, which was playing for a home game in the playoffs, drove to the Bears’ 30 before its comeback attempt stalled on a sack and two incompletions. 

3. Mountain Valley 27, Wells 20, Week 3 — There’s that Tim Ross kid again. Ross vaulted from third-string safety to hero in a Campbell Conference classic. But the shorthanded Falcons had to come back from a 20-12 halftime deficit first. Travis Fergola (5-yard TD run) and Izaak Mills (two-point conversion) tied the game in the third quarter, then a wounded Matt Duka put them in front with a 7-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. Wells’ drove from its own 10 to the Mountain Valley 8 with designs on tying the game. On second down, Warriors’ QB Paul McDonough lofted a pass toward the goalposts, which Ross brought down in the end zone with 14 seconds left to extend the Falcons’ winning streak to 15 games.

2. Yarmouth 35, Livermore Falls 28, Western C quarterfinal  — Seventh-seeded Yarmouth, playing in its first playoff game ever, began its Cinderella run through the Campbell Conference playoffs with a shocking upset of second-seeded Livermore Falls. The lead changed hands five times over the final two-and-a-half quarters. The Clippers went ahead, 27-21, on a David Dietz 2-yard run. The Andies responded by driving 65, with Ethan Hutchins scoring on a 21-yard run. Trevor Timberlake’s PAT gave them a one-point lead with 4:21 left. The Clippers took the lead with 1:21 remaining on an 11-yard touchdown catch by Brodie Woodsom, then bent but didn’t break as the Andies drove inside the 5 with time running out. They stopped QB Sam Whiting short on the final play of the game to take the Andies’ last gasp.

1. Edward Little 56, Oxford Hills 48, 5 OTs, Week 5 — Each team finished the season with one win, but a playoff atmosphere permeated the Don Gouin Complex for Oxford Hills’ homecoming. On a rainy afternoon, the Vikings led, 8-6, heading into the fourth quarter, then both teams spent the next hour-and-a-half trading haymakers. After quarterback Teven Colon put the Red Eddies up, 20-14, on a 37-yard touchdown run with 1:01 left in regulation, Matt Verrier drove the Vikings 44 yards in 53 seconds to tie it on a 14-yard TD pass to a leaping Eli Dolloff with no time left. EL blocked the extra point try to send the game to overtime. Both teams scored in each of the next four OT sessions. In the fifth, Colon and Brandon Vye hooked up on a 10-yard touchdown pass to give the Eddies the lead one last time. The defense clinched it when Avery Jackson recovered a fumble on third down to set off a wild celebration on the visitors’ sideline.