While Winslow and Waterville have pulled away from the pack in Eastern Class C and appear to have the top two seeds in the upcoming playoffs locked up, the fight for spots three through six should come down to the final week of the regular season.
Right now, Winslow and Waterville are each 5-0 and would get a bye out of the first round. Foxcroft Academy (4-1), Belfast (3-2), Madison (2-3) and Mt. Desert Island (2-3) are in spots three through six.
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Week Five Honor Roll
• Cody Soucier of Madison gained 226 yards of offense (182 rushing, 44 receiving) and scored three touchdowns in a 26-13 win over Mt. Desert Island.
• Madison’s Joe Foss recovered a fumble for a touchdown and had an interception in the Bulldogs’ win.
• Cam Thomas of Waterville ran for 208 yards on eight carries and scored on touchdown runs of 45 and 41 yards in a 61-14 win over Camden Hills.
• Trevor Saucier of Mount View ran for 258 yards and scored five touchdowns in a 53-12 win over Ellsworth.
• Nokomis’ Noah Kershner scored six touchdowns and ran for more than 200 yards in a 43-27 win over Old Town.
• Dustin Simpson-Bragg of Lawrence had four catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-0 win over Hampden.
• Mitch Cushing of Lawrence ran for 108 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries.
• Dylan Hapworth of Winslow gained more than 400 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns in a 62-6 win at Belfast.
• MCI quarterback Greg Vigue threw a pair of touchdown passes to Mitchell Hallee in a 58-6 win over Washington Academy.
“The thing about this league this year, there seems to be three or four of us teams that on any given night, somebody’s beating somebody,” MDI coach Mark Shields said. “Basically, we’re beating the crap out of each other trying to get those playoff spots.”
Madison has road games the next two weeks at Camden Hills (0-5) and Hermon (1-4) before ending the regular season at home against Waterville.
“We always tell these guys we focus on the play in front of us, and I’m the guy that looks forward,” Madison coach Scott Franzose said. “I like our chances, looking at the Crabtree standings.”
Franzose called Madison’s 26-13 win over MDI on Friday the team’s most complete game of the season.
“No disrespect to our opponents. We’ve played solid opponents. They’ve put together good games. A lot times, we beat ourselves,” Franzose said. “When we come and we stay focused and we execute, and we did every single down (against MDI), when we do that, I think we can play with anybody in the conference.”
• • •
Mount View picked up a much-needed win on Saturday, 53-12 over Ellsworth. It was the first win of the season for the Mustangs, who are now 1-3.
Coach Haggie Pratt said his young team is gaining confidence.
“We played a lot better (Saturday), just because of that confidence factor,” Pratt said. “We needed that.”
Mount View played well at times in losses to Orono (58-44) and Stearns (41-20), but Saturday’s win was the first time the Mustangs played a strong four quarters.
“We elminated a lot of the mistakes,” Pratt said. “We keep on getting a little better every week.”
Mount View travels to East Machias to take on Washington Academy (1-4) on Friday.
• • •
As Pinetree Conference Class B continues to shake itself out, one thing has become clear — everyone is chasing Brunswick.
The Dragons have more or less rolled every single opponent they’ve faced so far this season, and are winning games by an average of 29.8 points per game. Outside of a 34-21 win over Skowhegan on Sept. 26, Brunswick has won each of its games by at least 28 points.
“The main goal is to be at our best at the end,” Brunswick coach Dan Cooper said. “We were 5-0 at this time last season and we lost our last two out of three games and I thought last year’s team was better than this year’s.
“We want to try to learn from last year.”
Will Bessey and Alex Bandouveres lead the Dragons.
“They’ve been fantastic. They’re both two-way starters, great on defense, great on offense,” Cooper said. “It helps that every time they touch the ball they can take it the distance. They’re good running, they’re good blocking and they’re good catching.
“Probably the best quality about them is they’re very unselfish. They’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
• • •
Five teams in the PTC B are 2-3 and fighting for playoff spots. Four of those teams play each other on Friday in games that should shake up the conference’s standing a little bit.
Brewer travels to Skowhegan, while Gardiner hosts Mt. Blue.
Messalonskee, the fifth team in the league with a 2-3 record, takes on undefeated Brunswick.
• • •
Around the state: Cheers to coach Barry Terrill and the Washington Academy football team. The Raiders wore orange socks for their game at MCI on Friday, to honor Nolan Berthelette. Berthelette, who died in July, would have been a freshman on the MCI football team this fall. Orange was his favorite color… The big game in Class A this week is a crossover between Cheverus (4-1) and Thornton Academy (5-0)… Spruce Mountain is rolling through Western Class C. The Phoenix are 5-0, and have won each game by at least 21 points.
Staff Writer Evan Crawley contributed to this report.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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