LEWISTON, Maine — Three touchdowns in as many trips to the red zone during the first half helped Wells High School jump out to a 21-0 lead and defeat Foxcroft Academy 34-0 in the Class D high school football state championship game Saturday afternoon at Don Roux Field at Lewiston High School.
Wells won its second straight state title and finished a perfect 11-0 on the season. The Warriors have 14 consecutive victories dating back to the start of the 2023 postseason. A year ago the Warriors defeated Foxcroft 22-21 in Lewiston going ahead on a 2-point conversion completion in the final minute rather than trying a potential tying point after kick. That season the team returned to Class D after three years in Class C.
Foxcroft ends at 11-1. The team has lost just three games in four seasons from 2021-24 with two of the losses coming against Wells to conclude 2023 and 2024. This year’s state championship appearance was Foxcroft’s fourth in a row, a record in Class D.
This year’s matchup between the two programs was the fourth in seven seasons playing for the gold ball, with the Warriors defeating the Ponies 48-0 at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland in 2017 and 55-20 at the University of Maine’s Harold Alfond Sports Stadium in 2018, making them 4-0 in these meetings. In its history Wells has now won seven combined state championships on the gridiron between Classes B, C and D.
“Ultimately you have to tip your cap to your opponent, they are just a phenomenal team and a phenomenal program,” said Foxcroft head coach Danny White.
After electing to defer and then holding Foxcroft to a 3-and-out, Wells took over at its own 26-yard line. The Warriors kept the ball on the ground to advance to the Pony-1 for a 2nd-and-goal. Here senior Eli Potter got his sixth carry of the drive and he went up the middle and into the end zone as Wells also chewed up 5:34 of clock.
In the second quarter Wells had an 8-yard touchdown run by senior Dom Buxton after running the ball on all nine plays of the 4-minute drive that began at the team’s own 28.
“Defensively we were on our heels, they got to their angles and their spots where they wanted to be,” White said. “It’s tough when a team gets momentum like that and starts to believe in what they are doing. We were fighting and scratching just to get to 2nd-and-7, 2nd-and-8 in those few and far opportunities where we were able to have a little defensive success. Ultimately they were really good today and we had to be nearly perfect.”
Late in the first half Foxcroft got into Wells territory at the 28, which would be the furthest the Pony offense would get for most of the game until a drive late in the fourth stalled on the Warrior-23 following four straight incompletions.
On this drive in the second quarter Buxton made a fourth down interception. An 87-yard pick six was nullified by a holding call on the return but Wells still had possession at the Foxcroft-21. A half dozen plays later junior Dominic Carbonneau scored on a 17-yard counter to the left to put his team ahead 21-0.
Potter and Carbonneau would both run the ball into the end zone a second time in the third and fourth quarters respectively on 9- and 3-yard runs.
“It puts a lot of pressure on kids when you are really only going about 15 deep and they are probably going into the 20s” White said about Wells’ depth advantage. “It just makes it a big challenge and they were able to execute today.”