An official follows the play as a South Portland defender chases a Cony ball carrier during an Aug. 24 scrimmage in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

A shortage of on-field officials in Maine high school football is a problem every year.

It’s even more so this fall, said Rick Bates, the president of the Augusta chapter of the Maine Association of Football Officials (MAFO), which also has Bangor and Southwestern boards.

“We’re down at least 18 officials from last year,” Bates said. “When I first came on 20 years ago, we were sitting at about 128, 132, around there, and we’re down to – on a good day – 79.”

The drop is perhaps even greater in the Southwestern board’s area, according to several officials who worked high school games at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Friday and in Saco on Saturday.

“We had 147 in our board 15 years ago,” Dave Gardner said prior to the Friday night kickoff between Lewiston and host Portland. “Now it’s 75.”

The Southwestern chapter covers 26 varsity teams. Each varsity game requires five on-field officials and almost always a sixth in the booth to run the clock. A busy slate of 12 varsity games in one board area would require participation of nearly all officials.

To alleviate the crunch, some varsity games are being moved from Friday night to Thursday or Saturday. The officials also work on Sundays to cover youth games.

“You can’t forget about the little kids,” said Steven Delcourt of Old Orchard Beach, who added that when he started officiating football, “16, 17 years ago, we had 120 in our board.”

Bates said he officiated four games last weekend – three on Saturday (youth, an afternoon eight-man game and a night 11-man game).

“There were some officials who did five, counting the youth,” Bates said.

Coaches are seeing the impact. Thornton Academy Coach Kevin Kezal noted that his Week 3 game at Windham was moved to a Saturday and the regular-season finale against Scarborough will be on a Thursday “to help the officials out.”

“We’ve already played a Saturday game because of lack of officials,” said Marshwood Coach Alex Rotsko, “and next week we have a 3 p.m. game on a Friday at Gorham.”

Gardiner and Falmouth coaches and captains meet with officials before a 2023 game in Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

With fewer officials, first-year refs are being thrown into varsity games. New officials previously didn’t work varsity games until their third season.

“We take care of 12 varsity games with six officials each and unfortunately out of that number, 10 people are not at the varsity caliber yet,” Bates said.

Young officials also used to be mentored. A veteran official would come to their game or games, watch from the sideline, judge their performance and be able to offer important critiques.

“The shortage has kept it so we’re working in these young, inexperienced officials without a mentor,” said Cary Briggs, 65, of Buxton.

Officials are paid $95 for a varsity game, and $71.25 for junior varsity and middle school games. It can be an enjoyable side gig for someone who wants to stay connected to the game.

Bates said “there isn’t a weekend where my phone doesn’t blow up with various situations dealing with parents. And a couple of coaches.”

Kezal praised the overall work of the officials.

“I think the officiating we have is excellent. The last few years, it’s been very good,” Kezal said. “It’s tough. Because we need them. We need officials. But the ones we have I think are excellent.”

But Rotsko said he has seen an understandable decline in quality.

“You don’t have the experienced guys you’d normally have. You have a lot of new people. They’re rookies. And just like anyone else, they’re going to make mistakes just like a first-year coach or player would,” Rotsko said. “It’s not due to a lack of effort. It’s just a lack of experience.”

LEAVITT AND FRYEBURG ACADEMY will renew their rivalry Friday night in Turner.

Fryeburg gave Leavitt a scare in the Class C South final last season, losing 36-32 after leading by 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“Yeah, I think any time you play Fryeburg, it’s a big game because, you know, we’ve been two of the teams right at the top of the conference for quite a while now,” said Leavitt Coach Michael Hathaway, whose team has won the last five matchups. “That’s become the team. You kind of look ahead and see where that game is on the calendar and know that’s going to be a real important one in terms of where things fall for playoff positions.”

Fryeburg (3-1) leads the five-team Class C South, with its loss coming Friday night, 15-14 at Class B North contender Falmouth. Leavitt (2-2) was roughed up in losses to Class D Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale and Class B Deering, but bounced back Saturday night with a 28-25 homecoming win against Cony.

Leavitt quarterback Brock Poulin fires a pass during an Aug. 30 scrimmage against Thornton Academy in Turner. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Each team has a new quarterback, with Brock Poulin taking over for Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Noah Carpenter at Leavitt and William Campbell taking over for Colby Cohen at Fryeburg. Poulin has thrown four TDs while Campbell has two this season.

Malik Sow and Daniel Ruiz each have five touchdowns for Fryeburg.

“Scheme-wise, they’re pretty much the same as they’ve always been, but we usually have a few things that we’ve held back,” said Hathaway.

IN SOUTHERN MAINE, two games jump to the top of the must-watch list. In Class A, defending champion Thornton Academy (3-1), fresh off rushing for 263 yards in a 35-12 win over Bonny Eagle, is headed to unbeaten Noble (4-0).

While Thornton is Class A royalty, this is the Knights’ second year back in the division.

In 2023, Noble went a solid 6-3 but did not play Thornton. This season Noble has outscored opponents 144-29, with road wins against Windham, Scarborough, and last week Marshwood (35-7). It also beat Edward Little. Noble’s opponents are a combined 3-13.

In Class B, another defending champ will take on a new challenger Saturday when Kennebunk hosts Deering in a matchup of 4-0 teams that are also both nicknamed the Rams.

Kennebunk has been at or near the top of B South since moving down from Class A in 2013 and won its first state title since 1991 a year ago, beating Lawrence 40-20 to cap Keith Noel’s first season as head coach. So it’s not a surprise Kennebunk, now 85-26 since 2013, is back in contention.

Deering, on the other hand, has made significant improvement in its second season under Coach Brendan Scully. Deering has already beaten Marshwood and a quality Massabesic team on the road, along with a convincing 35-6 home victory against defending Class C champ Leavitt. Quarterback Tavian Lauture has become one of the state’s most dangerous playmakers, and Deering has some big, fast and aggressive interior defensive linemen led by Christian Kanana and DeShawn Lamour.

AT 4-0 FALMOUTH LOOKS LIKE it might be pulling away in Class B North. The league hierarchy beneath the Navigators? That’s anyone’s guess.

Cony, Lawrence, Messalonskee and Gardiner are all 2-2 as they vie for second place. That’s increased the stakes for teams looking to position themselves best for November.

“It’s a hodgepodge, and I think we had a feeling it might come down to that,” said Gardiner Coach Pat Munzing. “Falmouth has kind of done what we thought they were going to do, and everybody else is just kind of hanging on here in the middle and wondering how it’s all going to shake itself out.”

Cony dropped consecutive games to Falmouth and Leavitt after a 2-0 start. The Rams will continue a stretch of crossover contests hosting Scarborough on Friday, then Medomak Valley in games that could provide some much-needed Crabtree points.

Messalonskee quarterback Tatum Doucette makes a pass before Gardiner’s Kyle Doody (40) and Ryken King (54) can get the tackle during a football game Friday in Oakland. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Lawrence and Messalonskee, both of whom have beaten Gardiner but lost to Cony, will figure out a big piece of the puzzle Friday when they meet in Oakland. The loser will be in an unenviable position because both teams still have Falmouth on the schedule, the Bulldogs in Week 7 and the Eagles in Week 8.

As for Gardiner, it needs to start the second half of the regular season with a victory Friday against Skowhegan. Munzing hopes that can be the start of a productive three-game homestand; the Tigers will then host Falmouth and Cony before ending the regular season at Oceanside.

“It’s kind of going to be a four-game playoff for us just to get into the playoffs,” Munzing said. “We played our exhibition game and preseason game on the road, and we’ve also been on the road our past two weeks, so it’s really important for us that we settle into this home streak.”

BONNY EAGLE COACH Kevin Cooper said he emphasized to his Scots (2-2) that a regular-season loss to a rival can be reversed in the playoffs. That scenario has happened both ways between Bonny Eagle and Thornton in recent history.

“In 2019 we lost to these guys in midseason, on a similar day as this, and we beat them in the state championship game,” Cooper said. “(In 2017) we beat them pretty handily here (49-14) and they got us in the regional semifinal. They beat us in the game that counted.

“We’ve just got to keep getting better. I thought we did some good things. We’ve got to keep improving and win the race to November.”