The Westbrook High School football team completed a turnaround for the ages this season, going from among the worst in Class B a year ago to the newly crowned state champions.
And they did so by taking punch after punch from their opponents, only to get back up.
Coach Samuel Johnson explained how the 10-1 Blue Blazes played in close games throughout the season against teams that had historically gotten the better of them. But this year, Westbrook was a different team.
“So we felt like we have thrived in these situations where we’ve kind of had this sort of boxer’s mentality of, they’re gonna win a round, we’ll win a round, they’ll win around,” Johnson told the Bangor Daily News. “Just keep punching and getting punched, and then when the match is over, who won the most rounds?”
And in tight games against teams like Cheverus, Kennebunk and Marshwood, the Blue Blazes survived those rounds with wins. They took that same mentality up against a formidable Cony team from Augusta that rolled into the state final undefeated.
“In the Cony game, we knew we were gonna get punched,” Johnson said. “We weren’t naive to the fact that these guys are unbelievably high-powered, and we just knew that they hadn’t been punched like that, like we had.”
And after a flurry of punches between two of the state’s best teams, Westbrook took home the title 40-20 for its first ever state football championship.
The weight of that history was just starting to sink in for Johnson and his team on Tuesday, after they had toured local elementary schools and the middle school to show off the city’s new gold ball and sign autographs for young fans.
The significance of that first title is certainly not lost on Johnson, who graduated from Westbrook High in 2012 and has spent 11 years on the coaching staff, four of them as head coach. But it’s proving to be an even bigger deal than even he realized.
“After the dust has kind of settled from Saturday, you start hearing stories and people are reaching out,” Johnson said. “The community’s been so supportive and it’s overwhelming in a really positive way, to be honest with you. These kids galvanized the entire community.”
Johnson credited quarterback and co-captain Giovanni Staples for leading the offense, along with a “tremendous” offensive line and a backfield led by co-captain Cole Tanner. He also pointed to the defensive presence and playmaking from linebacker Lucas Roberson.
Johnson also highlighted the 87-yard interception return that senior co-captain linebacker Tony Bongomin took all the way back for a pivotal touchdown in the state title game.
“I mean, that’s probably one of the greatest plays in the history of Westbrook football,” Johnson said.
Now this group of champions is already inspiring the next generation of Westbrook players.
“And I don’t even really think they understand the impact of it yet, and nor should they,” Johnson said about the imprint team is leaving on the Westbrook community. “They’re kids, they’re trying to turn in their geometry homework, for crying out loud,”
And they have an incredibly proud coach, who is humbled to play a role in his program’s first state title.
“Westbrook’s a really special place, and Westbrook deserves this,” Johnson said. “And I’m just proud that our kids, our group, could be the group to bring it home to the ‘Brook, man.”
Johnson applauded Cony for being “dialed in” and “so well-coached” under B.L. Lippert.
The Westbrook coach admitted that his team is certainly feeling a bit of whiplash in its arc from worst-to-first in just one season, but it’s a good kind of whiplash.
After winning only two games a year ago, his players are now signing autographs as state champions.
“I’ve been doing it for 11 years, but what we just did the last couple hours is — we’ll see the results of that for probably a long time,” Johnson said about the school visits with the gold ball trophy this week. “It’s pretty profound.”
He called this “the height of our program’s existence.” And it’s a height the Blue Blazes wouldn’t have reached without Staples, the senior quarterback.
Staples’ leadership means a lot to Johnson, both on and off the field.
“I lost my mom a few years ago, and he and his teammates went to my mom’s service, and they got helmet stickers last year,” Johnson said about Staples. “He just means a lot to me, and we’ve grown together.”
Staples was a freshman in Johnson’s first year as head coach.
“Our ascension and our progression has been a lot of ways hand-in-hand,” Johnson said about Staples. “And he’s a kid that just holds everyone around him really accountable, and he competes at a high level.”
Now, after rolling with the punches for four years, they’re state champions together.
Johnson also emphasized the high level of community support from fans, local businesses, former players and coaches, school administrators and others.
“That can’t be stressed enough, just how much Westbrook came together,” Johnson said.
