Bangor High School football’s Hersom era begins Friday night as the season gets underway with 39 games across Maine during a three-day stretch.
There were six games scheduled for Thursday night, 28 slated for Friday evening and five more on Saturday afternoon.
Jack Hersom takes over the head coaching job at Bangor High School from the retired David Morris, and Hersom’s father, John, will be one of his assistants.
John Hersom stepped down earlier this year as the head coach at Fairfield’s Lawrence High School, where he led the Bulldogs to five regional championships and a state Class A title in 2006.
Jack Hersom had been an assistant coach for 14 years at Bangor High and was the offensive coordinator for the past 10 seasons.
The Hersoms will lead the Rams onto the field for a 7 p.m. Friday contest against visiting Massabesic High School of Waterboro.
Orono and Old Town played Thursday night, a matchup made possible when Old Town dropped from statewide Class C 11-man football to 8-man Large School North football for this season due to low numbers. Orono is an 8-man Small School North program.
The two schools merged into a cooperative hockey team in 2013-14 due to low numbers at Orono High, and they won the state Class B championship in 2018. They are still together in hockey.
Last fall, Old Town went 3-5 in Class C including a 62-6 loss to Medomak Valley of Waldoboro in a preliminary round playoff game.
Orono went 6-2 in 8-man Small School North, losing to Dexter 38-34 in the semifinals.
Two of eastern Maine’s most successful programs will square off at Pottle Field in Hermon at 7 p.m. Friday when the Foxcroft Academy Ponies from Dover-Foxcroft come calling to take on the Hermon High Hawks.
Both teams are in Class C, and they have split their last meetings the last two seasons.
Hermon earned a 26-6 victory a year ago after Foxcroft Academy had blanked the Hawks 17-0 the previous season.
Interestingly, both teams were ousted from the playoffs by Leavitt High School of Turner.
Leavitt eliminated Foxcroft Academy 34-3 in the quarterfinals and Hermon 47-14 in the semis before losing to Greely of Cumberland Center 41-6 in the state title game.
Foxcroft had made the move up to Class C last fall from Class D, where it had won four consecutive D North titles and back-to-back state championships in 2021 and 2022.
Foxcroft finished 6-4 in 2025 while Hermon wound up 8-2.
Camden Hills of Rockport, which claimed the state 8-man Large School state championship last fall, will move up to 11-player Class B North and open its season at 7 p.m. Friday in Oakland against Messalonskee High School.
The Massabesic-Bangor game will pit two schools 150 miles apart that haven’t faced each other since 2017 when Massabesic made the long trek north and came away with a 21-14 victory.
Massabesic, which has averaged six wins per season over the last four campaigns, went 3-6 a year ago, 2-4 in Class A South, and missed the playoffs.
Bangor went 6-5 overall and 4-2 in Class A North and reached the regional title game where it lost to Portland, 30-22. It was the second straight year Portland had beaten the Rams in the regional final.
Thornton Academy of Saco topped 2024 state champ Portland 28-0 in last fall’s state title game.
In Class B, Westbrook won its first ever state football title with a 40-20 win over Cony High of Augusta; Greely captured the C title over Leavitt and Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale triumphed in Class D, 41-14 over Winslow.
In 8-man football, Camden Hills outscored Spruce Mountain High School of Jay, 52-26 in the Large School final and Stearns/Schenck from Millinocket and East Millinocket edged Old Orchard Beach 20-18 in the Small School championship game.