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AUBURN — The notion might seem absurd in a playoff game in which it scored six touchdowns, but the Cony football team’s offense didn’t look as crisp Friday night as it has most of this year.

And yet the result was the same as usual: a blowout victory, and a continuation of an undefeated season.

Cony claimed just the second regional title in program history with a 40-7 win Friday over Fryeburg Academy in the Class B North final at Edward Little High School. The Rams (10-0) advance to face South champion Westbrook (9-1) in the state championship game next Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

The high-powered Rams faced fourth down twice on the opening drive and had two drives that didn’t end in points. But those were only minor hiccups for an offense that has seen little resistance this year.

Parker Morin had another stellar night for top-seeded Cony, completing 15 of 20 passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns, and rushing for two scores. The Rams outgained Fryeburg 410-149.

“It was a great job by this group, and I can’t say enough about them,” said Cony coach B.L. Lippert. “(Fryeburg) came out a little bit more aggressively than they’ve done all year and pressed our receivers a little more than they had, and they tackled really well. It took us a little bit to adjust to that, but we did.”

Fryeburg’s defense surprised Cony early, forcing the Rams into two fourth downs on the opening drive. Yet Cony converted both, and on third-and-5, Morin ran for a 12-yard score.

The second-seeded Raiders (6-4) followed with a 16-play drive but failed to score. Cony capitalized when Morin found Ethan Demmons for a 12-yard touchdown pass. Demmons then intercepted Fryeburg’s Ty Boone on the next play from scrimmage, and three plays later, Morin hit Anderson Noyes for a 17-yard score.

“There’s not a guy I don’t trust out there with the ball in the air,” Morin said. “It’s just awesome. … Even when we might not be clicking on all cylinders, we just have to make the plays we need to make.”

Cony turned it over on downs on its first drive of the second half, but Noyes extended the lead with a 2-yard run late in the third quarter. Morin then hit Kolton Colby for a 21-yard touchdown early in the fourth, and after Fryeburg’s Benny Árnason hit Robbie Hazlewood for an 83-yard score, a 3-yard run by Morin rounded out the scoring. 

Cooper Clark (four catches, 92 yards), Demmons (five catches, 69 yards) and Benjamin Hanke (three catches, 71 yards) were major factors in the receiving game for Cony, while Noyes had 22 carries for 94 yards. Defensively, the Rams had three interceptions, picking off Árnason twice and Boone once.

“We’ve got great defensive coordinators for our pass game,” said Clark, who was one of three Cony players with an interception, along with Demmons and Tenny Tibbetts. “We’ve just been locked down and repping everything all week.”

Cony also limited Fryeburg in the run game. The Raiders had 20 carries for just 49 yards, with Boone, one of the best players in the Pine Tree Conference, limited to 15 yards on nine carries. Árnason completed 3 of 10 passes for 107 yards.

Still, Fryeburg was much more competitive than it was during a 53-7 Week 5 loss to Cony in which it trailed by 40 at halftime. A regional runner-up finish was noteworthy for a Raiders team that moved up from Class C and, aside from Boone, returned few regulars from last year’s Class C state championship squad.

“I think we came a long way,” said Fryeburg coach David Turner. “I mean, you go back to the first time we played them, it was over at halftime. Our kids battled, and I think that’s the biggest thing we can draw from this and that our returning kids take away as we go into next year.”

This win was a breakthrough for a group of Cony seniors that had challenged for regional titles before but came up short. The Rams lost in the semifinals as the No. 1 seed in 2022 and as the No. 2 seed last year. They also lost to Lawrence in the 2023 regional final.

Now, after outscoring its B North foes 407-46 across eight games, Cony will take on the best from the South. The current Rams were young boys when the program won its only state title of the playoff era in 2013, and next Saturday, they’ll get a chance to become the first 11-win team in Cony history.

“I had a couple cousins on that team, and I remember how excited they were to win that,” Morin said. “It’s awesome now to know we have the same opportunity to play in that game.”