Unbeaten teams Lawrence and Mt. Blue will be seeking Eastern Maine titles and their 11th victories in high school football finals in Class A and B, respectively, this weekend.
CLASS A — Cony Rams (8-2) at Lawrence Bulldogs (10-0), 1 p.m. Saturday, Keyes Field, Fairfield: Top-ranked Lawrence has lived up to all expectations this season, with no team coming closer than three touchdowns of the defending Pine Tree Conference Class A champions.
Perhaps most impressive has been their stretch run with four straight games against the league’s other three playoff teams, Cony of Augusta, Brunswick and Messalonskee of Oakland.
Coach John Hersom’s outscored those teams by a combined 109-13, including back-to-back shutouts of Messalonskee to end the regular season and in last weekend’s PTC semifinals.
Lawrence is averaging 39.3 points per game on offense and defensively has shown the ability to stop both the pass and run.
Last week, the Bulldogs limited the run-oriented Messalonskee offense to 84 total yards in their 27-0 win, while in their regular-season meeting against Cony’s prolific passing attack the ‘Dogs intercepted five passes and sacked Rams’ quarterback Ben Lucas three times during a 27-6 victory.
For the season, Lucas has completed 188 of 327 passes for 2,559 yards and 31 touchdowns.
CLASS B — Waterville Purple Panthers (6-4) vs. Mt. Blue Cougars (10-0), 7 p.m. Friday, Kemp Field, Farmington: Mt. Blue bounced back from its double-overtime loss at Leavitt of Turner Center in last year’s Pine Tree Conference Class B final with its first undefeated regular season since 1986.
And while the top-seeded Cougars faced a first-round playoff scare before outlasting No. 8 Mount Desert Island 14-13, coach Gary Parlin’s club rebounded last weekend with a 33-21 win over No. 4 Gardiner sparked by senior quarterback Jordan Whitney, who completed all seven of his passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 136 yards and another score.
Mt. Blue’s unblemished record this fall includes a 53-24 win over Waterville in the final game of the regular season.
The loss was the third in four games for the sixth-ranked Purple Panthers, but coach Frank Knight’s club has used solid defense and a punishing rushing attack to knock off No. 3 Hampden Academy and No. 7 Belfast during its playoff run.
That ground game has featured senior Racean Wood, who has rushed for 329 yards and three touchdowns on 45 carries during postseason play.
Mt. Blue is seeking its first Eastern Maine championship since winning the Class A title in 2005. Waterville last won a regional title in 1994, also while still in Class A.
