HAMPDEN – The Hermon High School football team built an 18-0 lead in their Class C North championship game against Medomak Valley of Waldoboro at Hampden Academy on Saturday afternoon.
But the Hawks needed a fortuitous bounce to claim their first regional title, 24-14 over the Panthers.
Hermon, 8-2, will face Fryeburg Academy in next Saturday’s state final at Lewiston. Fryeburg defeated Leavitt 38-0 in the South final.
Medomak Valley wound up 7-3.
Senior running back Max Hopkins’ three-yard touchdown run early in the third period, his third of four in the game, put the Hawks up 18-0. Then the Panthers stormed back.
Gabe Lash’s one-yard TD run, a fumble recovery by Porter Gahagan and Jaydiin Ruiz’s 27-yard TD jaunt on the next play followed by Lash’s conversion run made it 18-14.
Early in the fourth quarter, facing a fourth and three at Medomak’s 46-yard line, Hermon quarterback Ethan Curtis rolled to his right and was hit hard by the Panthers and the ball popped in the air.
It landed right in the hands of Hopkins, who ran four yards with it to pick up the first down and extend the drive for Hermon.
He picked up another first down on fourth and inches and finished off the drive with a six-yard TD run to sew up the win with 2:23 left.
The Hawks didn’t throw their first pass until there were 30 seconds left in the first half and it proved to be important.
Sophomore quarterback Curtis threw a 22-yard slant pass to Sam Hopkins to pick up a first down on a third-and-four play with 26.9 seconds left and the Hawks eventually scored on Max Hopkins’ six-yard run with 4.7 seconds remaining to expand its lead to 12-0.
Curtis followed that throw with a couple throws to the right sideline to freshman Griffin Dunton, who smartly tiptoed along the sideline down to the one-yard line. The first pass covered 11 yards and the next one was good for 12.
Curtis alertly avoided a sack by sailing the ball out of bounds as he was being thrown to the turf.
An illegal procedure penalty pushed the ball back to the six but the Hawks offensive line opened a big hole on the left side and Hopkins rumbled into the end zone.
That capped a 12-play, 82-yard drive.
Hermon had taken a 6-0 lead with 8:17 left in the second period when Hopkins capped a 12-play, 69-yard drive by bulling his way into the end zone from 14 yards out.
Hopkins carried the ball eight times for 36 yards on the drive and the Hawks benefitted from a fortuitous bounce when a high snap bounced off Curtis’ hands into the hands of the shifty Bruce Coulter, who turned it into a nifty 16-yard scamper around the right end.
