Despite its name, the 8-player small football state championship game was a battle between two giants in the No. 1 Orono Red Riots and the No. 1 Old Orchard Beach Seagulls.
Ever since competing in last year’s state title game — in which the Seagulls outmuscled the Red Riots, 46-22 — both sides embarked on reigns of terror in their respective regions, with Orono winning nine of nine in the North by an impressive average margin of 37.2 points, and the Seagulls winning ten of ten in the South by an unfathomable average margin of 61.
But Orono certainly paid no mind to Old Orchard’s menacing reputation — or last year’s state final loss — on Saturday at Cameron Stadium in Bangor, dominating the Seagulls 46-18 en route to a perfect season.
It was Orono’s first state championship in football since 1994, and came just two years after going winless in 2021.
“It’s really special. Really special,” 19-year Orono head coach Bob Sinclair said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
After being held scoreless their first two drives, the Red Riots got things started early in the second quarter, facing third and long from their own 46-yard line against a stingy Old Orchard defense.
Orono junior quarterback Jack Brewer found senior Pierce Walston for 11 yards and then junior Will Francis for 10 to get the fourth down conversion. Now in Seagull territory for the first time all game, the Red Riots calmly parlayed a senior Ben Francis first down run and then a 21-yard touchdown pass from Brewer to Will Francis, Ben’s younger brother, for the opening score with 8:22 to go.
From there, the Red Riots forced Old Orchard to punt into the wind, and continued to frustrate their defense.
“In the huddle we said, ‘we gotta bear down and break this open,’” Brewer said. “We could sense it.”
On fourth and eight, Brewer beat the blitz and quickly hit a streaking Pierce Walston for a 27-yard touchdown pass. One Orono fumble recovery later, Brewer found the speedy Walston again for a 58-yard bomb on first down, before Ben Francis easily walked it in to make it 20-0 Red Riots.
But neither the Seagulls — or their fans — would go away without a fight.
With less than a minute to work with before the break, Old Orchard didn’t hesitate to make things interesting, with junior Blady Plante hitting junior Riley Provencher on a 52-yard catch and run. Cornered against the Orono sideline, Provencher somehow broke two tackles and sped off to the end zone, right when the Red Riots were feeling comfortable.
Suddenly, the Old Orchard camp was buzzing with excitement, and had a chance to soak in their touchdown over the break.
Unfortunately for the reigning state champs, however, Orono came to play.
“They wouldn’t go away, credit to them,” Sinclair said. “[But] we really felt we could beat them.”
Debuting a new running scheme nobody had really seen before, the Red Riots proceeded to plow through the Seagull defense in the second half, countering two Old Orchard Beach touchdowns with four of their own.
“We’d been repping it in practice — hiding it this whole season,” Walston said. “We pulled it out when we needed it most.”
The explosive Pierce Walston and powerful Ben Francis did the honors for Orono, burying the Seagulls with four rushing touchdowns combined in the second half. It was a defining moment for the senior duo and the team as a whole, after being pushed around by Old Orchard in last year’s state championship game.
“It’s insane,” Walston said. “It comes down to grind and grit, and everybody had that.”
