The Waterville Senior High School football team has looked forward to tonight’s game at Foxcroft Academy for some time. The Ponies have anticipated this matchup for a while, too. This midseason game is important not just for playoff positioning, but each team is looking to see how it stacks up against one of the best in the Big Ten Conference.

Both teams are undefeated. Waterville has won each game by at least 46 points. The defending Class C state champion, Foxcroft has had one close game, a 28-27 win over Belfast on Sept. 20.

This is Waterville’s first Friday night game of the season. The Purple Panthers will play just one more Friday night, two weeks from now at Mt. Desert Island.

“We have a monumental task against an excellent Waterville football team,” Foxcroft coach Danny White said. “We’ve got to play at an extremely high level. They’re extremely well-coached.”

When they played in different divisions, Waterville and Foxcroft regularly played preseason scrimmages against each other.

“We are a little familiar with Foxcroft. We know what they do. They know what we do,” Waterville coach Frank Knight said.

Waterville is tough to defend not just because of the multiple formation the Purple Panthers use, but because of its depth at the skill positions. Even with the loss of running back Cam Thomas to a broken toe, the Panthers offense hasn’t slowed a bit. Each week, Waterville has seen a different player step up, and last week, that was junior Dan Pooler, who ran for 130 yards and five touchdowns in last week’s 53-0 win over Hermon.

“What they do, they do well,” White said.

Dalton Denis ran for 126 yards for the Panthers last week, and the quarterback combination of Brian Bellows and Aidan FitzGerald is working. Luke Knight, Ben Cox, and Duncan Works lead a strong Waterville offensive line.

“I expect a lot of pounding up front,” Frank Knight said.

The Ponies are led by veteran quarterback Hunter Law, who completed 6 of 8 passes for 115 and a pair of touchdowns in last week’s 50-0 win at Camden Hills. Halfback Peter Boyer is a strong runner for Foxcroft, as is fullback Corey Bjornson. Hunter Smith is the top receiver on the Ponies.

In the Pine Tree Conference Class B, a pair of games could help set playoff seeds. Brunswick (4-0) plays at Mt. Blue (2-2), while Cony (3-1) plays at Skowhegan (2-2). The defending Class B state champion, Mt. Blue has lost two games in a row, while Brunswick has rolled behind a dominant running game. Cony and Skowhegan both run the spread offense well. Each is led by an excellent senior quarterback, Ben Lucas for Cony and Skowhegan’s Adam Clukey.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com