The Hermon High School football team will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season against the 7-0 Leavitt High School Hornets from Turner in a statewide Class C encounter at Pottle Field in Hermon on Friday night.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Last week, defending state Class C champ Greely of Cumberland dealt the visiting Hawks a 28-14 setback, leaving the Hawks with a 6-1 record.
Greely is also 6-1 with its lone loss being to Leavitt, 30-12, on Sept. 10.
Among the other games this weekend, Bangor, coming off an important 35-14 victory over Edward Little of Auburn, will travel to take on Sanford at 7 p.m. Friday.
Bangor is 3-3 in Class A North while Sanford is 1-6 in Class A South.
The John Bapst High School Crusaders, 4-3 and in third place in Class D North, will entertain 6-1 Winthrop, second in D South, at Cameron Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, defending state 8-Player Small state titlist Stearns/Schenck will look to improve to 8-0 when it hosts 2-5 Sacopee Valley of South Hiram.
Also at 1 p.m. Saturday, headlining the schedule in southern Maine is the battle of 7-0 Class A South heavyweights between defending state champ Thornton Academy of Saco and visiting Bonny Eagle of Buxton.
At Hermon, Hawks coach Kyle Gallant will be looking for a bounceback performance from his team after the loss at Greely.
Gallant said the first half of the game against Greely was “decent.”
“We played well enough to put points on the board, well enough to stop a really high, prolific offense like they have,” said Gallant. “Then they just kind of ground us out in the second half. We couldn’t get anything going. We had some missed opportunities to tackle the ballcarrier. We couldn’t get out of third-and-longs and fourth downs.”
He knows his team will have its hands full with head coach Mike Hathaway’s Leavitt Hornets, who have outscored their opponents 288-39.
Leavitt reached the state title game a year ago where it lost to Greely 41-6.
“They’re really solid all the way around in all three phases of the game. They’re well-coached. You have to execute and play really, really good football in all three phases to beat a team like that. That’s something we’ve been working on this week,” said Gallant.
The Hawks have never beaten the Hornets, losing 47-14 in the semifinals and 12-7 during the regular season. They also lost to Leavitt in 2019.
He said he will need better play from his offensive and defensive lines after losing the battle of the trenches in the second half against Greely.
“We have to control the football and keep their offense off the field as much as possible,” said Gallant.
Leavitt’s offensive catalyst is standout junior dual-threat quarterback Landon Marquis, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more in last weekend’s 36-12 win over Nokomis of Newport.
“He is very good,” said 10th-year head coach Gallant.
Hermon features hybrid slotback/linebacker Sam Hopkins, fullback/running back/linebacker Dylan Yeo, quarterback Ethan Curtis and wide receiver Griffin Dunton.
It will be Homecoming and Senior Night in Hermon.
“That place will be crazy. We’re excited about it. We’re looking to rebound,” said Gallant.
At Sanford, the Rams all but sewed up a berth in the Class A North playoffs with their win over Edward Little last Friday night, and they will be looking to build momentum for the playoffs.
Sanford is better than its record indicates as its six losses have come to teams who have a combined record of 29-13.
Explosive Bangor junior slotback/wide receiver Gavin Hughes scored four touchdowns on three short runs and a game-opening 87-yard kickoff return. He now has seven touchdowns in his last two games.
Steadily improving junior quarterback Alex Tennett, who has thrown for 300-plus yards in two of his last four games, completed 8-of-13 passes for 89 yards against EL and he also ran for a 21-yard TD.
Hayden Summerlin caught five passes for 68 yards.