The Hermon Hawks extended their winning streak to four games on Friday, shutting out the Nokomis Warriors 28-0 at home on Pottle Field.
Now 5-3, the Hawks clinched the No. 3 seed in Class C North and will play 1-7 No. 6 Brewer at home next Friday in the first round of the playoffs.
“We’re getting better every week,” head coach Kyle Gallant said. “We’re headed into the playoffs going up the mountain.”
On offense, the Hawks sandwiched a grindy, 12-play third-quarter scoring drive with three quick touchdowns of 52, 75 and 46 yards.
For Hermon’s first big play, junior quarterback Bruce Coulter rolled out right and hit freshman Ethan Curtis streaking deep for 52 yards and Hermon’s first completion of the night.
In the fourth quarter, senior Damon Kimball and freshman Sam Hopkins broke loose for touchdown runs of 75 and 46 respectively, speeding away into the Hermon night and slamming the door on their visitors from Newport.
“We all have a lot of speed, even the linemen,” Hopkins said. “We’re not the biggest team, but we’re all really fast.”
Coulter and Curtis split snaps under center for the Hawks, with Coulter passing for 79 and running for 23 yards — including a 2-yard touchdown — on 10 total attempts. Curtis threw for 14 yards on five attempts.
On defense, the Hawks were all over the Nokomis backfield, allowing less than 125 total yards of offense, and sacking quarterback Logan Washburn twice.
“Our confidence today on defense today grew a lot,” Coulter said. “[It’s] the will to do it. Everyone wants to be there.”
The win capped off a turnaround regular season for the Hawks, who at one point were 1-3 and struggling with the losses of star upperclassmen Alec Smith and Max Hopkins to injury for the year.
“It was a rough few weeks there,” Gallant said. “Everything [was] down. We were five starters out.”
Since Sept. 30, however, the Hawks have beaten Maine Central Institute 40-13, Old Town 34-6, Hampden Academy 22-18 and now Nokomis 28-0.
“We challenged the guys to win out,” Gallant said. “They responded really, really well with that. I’m so proud of everybody.”
Part of Hermon’s resurgence has been fueled by the emergence of their talented freshmen class, especially Curtis and Hopkins. The small, speedy duo are extremely versatile, and are used all over the place, including special teams.
“We have a lot of good, young players,” Gallant said. “The future’s bright.”
