On the bus ride home from Eliot to Portland after leading Deering High School football to a blowout win at Marshwood High School, Rams senior quarterback Tavian Lauture got a text message from one of his close friends asking how his game went.
You’d think the sender might go to Deering, but it was Portland High School senior quarterback Louis Thurston. The next week, Lauture raced over to Fitzpatrick Stadium after Deering’s win against Biddeford to catch Thurston and Portland put the finishing touches on a victory over Oxford Hills. Similar scenes happened numerous times over the years.
“I see Louie and it reminds me of how close we really are,” Lauture said. “It was just so cool that I have a friend that’s there.”
From early elementary school summers at Portland’s recreation camp to fifth grade at Longfellow Elementary School and a formative three years at Lincoln Middle School, the signal callers of Portland’s two public school football teams have a unique relationship — not rivals, other than during the annual Thanksgiving game, but close friends.
It’s a kinship that’s advantageous to each other’s games. They dive into film and critique one another, learning from their own and each other’s mistakes.
“It’s kind of amazing,” Thurston said. “We don’t both have to make the same mistakes if we’re talking about them. And it’s just fun to be able to watch someone you grew up with playing in another game.”
They knew of each other from area youth football, but their friendship solidified when Lauture transferred elementary schools in fifth grade. His family moved two houses from Thurston’s. They could see each other’s houses from their windows. Portland’s middle school football program brought them closer. Thurston, the quarterback, and Lauture, then a receiver, trained together countless times on Deering’s field and in The Dome at Portland Sports Complex.
Thurston always wanted to go to Portland High School, curious about the experience its downtown campus offered. Initially, Lauture wanted to join him, but opted for Deering to stick with most of his friend group. They see each other often, especially in the summer, going to the beach with their friends.
“Every time we hang out it’s like we’ve seen each other for the last five days straight,” Thurston said.
“We’ll go months without seeing each other,” Lauture interjected, “but if I see him one day it’s like we’ve been together every single day.”
Divergent football careers as underclassmen converged as upperclassmen.
Thurston was supposed to start for Portland as a sophomore but sustained a season-ending injury early in the year. He assumed the starting role as a junior last fall and is 11-1 as a starter overall. Last year, Thurston, who also starts as a ball-hawking strong safety, racked up 1,247 passing yards and 14 touchdowns, plus four rushing touchdowns, to help the Bulldogs reach the Class A state championship game. A lacrosse player in the spring, Thurston picked up where he left off to start his senior campaign, completing eight of nine passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns and racked up 113 yards and a rushing touchdown on nine carries in a 40-20 win over Oxford Hills.
Lauture took over the starting quarterback job as a junior last year, picking up league All-Star honors and willing the Rams to end their four-year playoff drought.
In Deering’s first game this year, a 35-8 blowout win at Class B power Marshwood, Lauture engineered the offense and special teams. A guard on the Rams’ basketball team in the winter and pitcher/infielder on the baseball team in the spring, Lauture displayed his athletic prowess and all-around game with 126 yards and two touchdowns through the air, 88 yards and a score on the ground and a 41-yard field goal.
Both led their teams to victories in Week 2.
Deering’s football team hasn’t posted a winning record since the fall of 2015, when this reporter and Lauture’s sister, Simone, and Thurston’s sister, Mia, were seniors at Deering.
Portland compiled winning records in all but two seasons over the past decade, ripping off 11-1 marks in 2021 and 2023 and falling in the state championships the last two years.
Portland and Deering now only match up on the annual Thanksgiving game, the 112th of which is slated for the morning of Nov. 28. Deering’s football team moved to Class B South in 2018. So too did Portland, but the Bulldogs moved back up to Class A last year after much success.
So this upcoming fourth Thursday in November contains a game within the game, the final high school matchup for lifelong friends before graduating and moving on to the next chapter of their lives, likely playing a sport at colleges to be determined.
Portland captured eight of the last 10 Thanksgiving games, including back-to-back shutout victories in the two most recent contests. Lauture feels it’s his team’s year for a chance at victory. Thurston acknowledged “Deering is on the come up.” Last game, after Thurston tackled Lauture, both came up laughing.
“You can’t not have fun,” Thurston said. “You get tackled by your best friend growing up and you just have to smile.”
