PITTSFIELD, Maine — Two teams that lived up to everyone else’s preseason hype and their own high expectations will square off at Alumni Field at 7 p.m. Saturday with the LTC football championship at stake.
For top-ranked and undefeated Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield, it’s been a journey more than a decade in the making.
For second-seeded and defending champion Bucksport, it’s been more of the same.
MCI is seeking its first LTC crown since 2000, when the Huskies ventured to Millinocket and for the title game edged a Stearns High School squad guided by current MCI coach Tom Bertrand 22-14 in overtime.
Bertrand took the head job at MCI — his alma mater — the next season and has guided the program through its share of struggles while also nurturing his current roster from their collective youth-league days to the brink of the Eastern Maine Class D championship and a trip to Portland to play in the Class D state final on Nov. 22.
“It’s been a long time since they’ve played for a championship here,” said Bertrand. “When I got here in 2001 this group was just little kids who started in our feeder program, and here they are now as seniors and juniors and sophomores.
“To see the excitement as it’s grown is pretty nice for me. I’ve taken a special pride in it and I just want it to go well for them.”
Many of the current stars on the team gained their varsity baptism early in their high school careers, endured some growing pains — MCI finished 0-8 just two years ago — and now have won 16 of their last 18 games, including a 9-0 mark this fall.
“We were playing a lot of sophomores and even freshmen a couple of years ago,” said Bertrand. “Now those kids have two or three years of experience and that pays off, for sure.”
Bucksport, meanwhile, has been one of the LTC’s most consistent programs under 20th-year coach Joel Sankey.
The current seniors gone have 20-1 on their home field over four years, and the Golden Bucks are in search of their second straight conference crown and third in four years over that span.
And as evidence of how difficult that latter feat is, no team has repeated as LTC champion since Foxcroft Academy won three straight between 2005 and 2007, and no current conference member has defended a title successfully since Stearns won five consecutively between 1991 and 1995.
Bucksport’s lone blemish on an 8-1 run this fall was a 35-20 Week 3 loss at MCI, when the Huskies scored 21 unanswered second-half points to snap a 14-14 tie.
Since then, the Bucks have scored seven straight victories, including a 41-13 semifinal win over John Bapst of Bangor last Friday.
“The last three weeks we’ve played fairly well,” said Sankey. “We’re coming together at the right time of year.”
Bucksport features an assortment of weapons led by senior running backs Jack Cyr and Asher Bowden and senior quarterback Matthew Stewart.
Cyr erupted for 285 rushing yards and three touchdowns last week, bringing his season’s total on the ground to 1,464 yards.
Stewart, a three-year starter behind center for the Golden Bucks, has been one of the more accurate passers in LTC history, this year completing 63 percent of his attempts for 1,030 yards with 18 touchdowns and three interceptions during the regular season and adding a 6-of-7, 102-yard playoff effort last week.
“They’re just a good football team,” said Bertrand. “They’re the defending Eastern Maine champions and they execute very well and are well-coached, and I just think a team like that improves all around as the season goes on all around.”
MCI’s improvement has included the development of increased depth after starting running backs Jonathan Santiago and Eric Hathaway went down with injuries midway through the season.
That made for a larger role in the backfield for fullback Alex Bertrand and increased playing time for the likes of sophomores Eli Bussell and Willie Moss as they complemented junior quarterback Greg Vigue, senior wideout Austin Tolman and senior tight end Mitchell Hallee.
Now Santiago and Hathaway are back — they combined for 280 rushing yards and three touchdowns in last week’s 20-0 semifinal win over No. 4 Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln — and MCI is deeper than ever.
In the Western D final, No. 3 Oak Hill (9-1) is at No. 1 Lisbon (8-1) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
