Five weeks into the regular season, high school football teams are dogged yet hungry. The playoffs are less than a month away, and teams will have to dig deep as they approach the final stretch. Here are four interesting games this weekend featuring Bangor area teams needing some big wins.
Old Town at Hermon, Friday at 7 p.m.
Considered one of northern Maine’s top teams to watch this preseason, back-to-back regional finalist Hermon has not met expectations through five games. With tough losses to Oceanside, Foxcroft and Medomak Valley, the Hawks are 2-3 and need this win over Old Town to get back to .500 and land a higher seed in the Class C North standings.
Old Town is coming off a tough loss to Hampden Academy at home and has yet to get its first win of the season. The Coyotes are young, with 15 underclassmen and only 12 upperclassmen, but they have shown flashes of legitimate skill with a hard-nosed line corps and several talented ball carriers.
Led by freshman quarterback Ethan Closson, junior fullback James Renzo and senior running back Isaac Tinkle, Old Town came close to knocking off Poland and Belfast earlier this season and is eager to get in the win column.
Both the Hawks and Coyotes are run-first teams, so this will be an interesting battle likely decided at the line of scrimmage. The deciding factors will be junior Hermon quarterback Bruce Coulter’s willingness to test Old Town’s secondary and the Coyotes’ level of creativity on offense.
Hampden Academy at Nokomis, Saturday at 1 p.m.
Even without starting quarterback Nick Johnston, starting running back Tyler Coffin and top wide receiver Aiden Kochendoerfer, the 3-2 Hampden Broncos have strung together a two-game winning streak and are above .500 for the first time since 2013.
Led by third-string signal caller sophomore Gavin Monyok, the Broncos have beaten Maine Central Institute 40-6 and Old Town 42-13 the past two weeks and have done a great job utilizing their athletic receiving corps.
Monyok hit four different receivers for touchdowns against Old Town, including 6-foot-4 junior wide out Andy Hengahen, who had two.
“We’re bringing back Hampden football,” Henaghen said. “Everyone’s just one big family, it’s amazing.”
Hampden is keen on getting a third straight win this weekend against the 2-3 Warriors, who are desperate for more in-conference wins before the playoffs start. Nokomis has yet to beat a Class C North opponent and will bring out all the stops as it tries to bounce back from losses to Oceanside and Gardiner.
Bangor at Cony, Friday at 7 p.m.
The 3-2 Bangor Rams have officially had a bounceback season at this point, after going 1-8 last year. A season for their team to gel and their young players to mature has paid off, as Bangor is only “growing and all our guys are gaining more confidence,” head coach Dave Morris says.
The next team on their list are the Rams from Augusta, who have underperformed and stand at 2-3 through five games. A win for Bangor would put them at 4-2 and keep them ahead of the 2-3 Lewiston Blue Devils in the Class A North standings.
Bangor’s Jack Schuck has proven himself as a dual-threat quarterback and has done a great job of distributing the ball among the Rams’ deep receiving corps. Bangor is coming off an uplifting 28-7 win over Winnacunnet (New Hampshire) and is set to arrive in Cony with something to prove.
“I have to be able to trust my teammates, and they have to trust me,” Schuck said preseason. “That’s an honor for me.”
Brewer at Winslow, Saturday at 1 p.m.
On Saturday, the orange and black Witches will travel to Winslow to play the orange and black Raiders.
A young Witches team has had a tough schedule to start its season, losing to undefeated Messalonskee, undefeated Oceanside, 4-1 Medomak Valley and back-to-back regional finalist Hermon. But Brewer has a great opportunity to get its first win of the season this weekend against a 2-3 Winslow squad.
Winslow has two more wins than Brewer, but Winslow plays in Class D and Brewer in Class C, and the Witches are hungry for a victory. Moreover, Winslow has struggled against teams that Brewer’s opponents have dominated, such as Belfast and Nokomis, and is on a three-game losing streak.
Saturday’s game will be a hard-fought battle between two teams seeking a bounceback win and should not disappoint.
