For the second year in a row, the cooperative football team from Millinocket and East Millinocket will be traversing the state to compete in the 8-man small school state championship.
And they’re happy to make the trip, even if it means hours on the road.
“We’ll play wherever they want us to,” said head coach Cody Herring, who is leading the Stearns/Schenck cooperative team to a state title rematch against returning champion Old Orchard on Saturday.
Herring’s Minutemen will spend nearly three hours on the road getting to Edward Little High School in Auburn for the game, while the Old Orchard team faces a commute of around an hour. The difference in travel times was even more pronounced a year ago, when the championship game was basically in Old Orchard’s back yard at nearby Kennebunk High School.
But Herring isn’t dwelling on the travel comparison.
“I always tell the kids, if they told me the game was on the moon, we’d find a way to get there,” Herring said.
Saturday will be the first away game of the playoffs for the Minutemen, who have been piling up points so far in the post season. They have outscored their two previous opponents by a combined 100 points.
The Stearns/Schenck team rolled over those first two playoff opponents to get back to the state title game, beating Bucksport 44-0 and then handling Dexter 64-8 in last week’s snowy semifinal in Millinocket.
But even with that eye-popping offensive production, Saturday’s state championship could come down to defensive resolve.
“When you look back at that score differential, I think the real thing that we’re proud of is the eight points,” Herring said on Thursday. “Eight-man football can be very, very high scoring. So to hold teams to single touchdowns or no touchdowns at all is great. And that comes down to defensive execution, that we’ve been trying to get better at as the year goes along.”
And the Minutemen will likely need their best defensive execution yet as they face Old Orchard yet again. The Seagulls beat the Minutemen 60-14 for the 8-man small school title a year ago, and also won this season’s previous matchup between the two teams in September by a score of 34-20.
Stearns heads into the championship with a record of 8-2 this season and Old Orchard is a perfect 10-0.
“They’ve got a great thing going down south,” Herring said about the Old Orchard program. “They’re just kind of the class of 8-man football, truthfully, at this point.”
Herring doesn’t expect to be able to stop a talented offensive team like Old Orchard completely.
“But you’ve gotta try to slow them down and limit the big damage,” he said. “We talked to the kids about no big plays, you know, make them earn it.”
Whichever team can get a few stops here and there could make a big difference in determining Saturday’s state champion, the Stearns/Schenck coach said.
Offensively, the Minutemen have been paced this year by a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in junior Cohen Raymond and senior Lucas Pelkey.
“That doesn’t happen by accident,” Herring said about the offensive production, crediting both the ball-carriers and the teammates blocking for them.
Herring called it “huge for our program” to make back-to-back state championship games, calling it a testament to the players’ hard work.
He’s looking for his team to continue to give its best effort in the title game.
“It’s been a great year and we hope to do something special on Saturday,” Herring said. “But at the end of the day, as long as we show up and work hard, we’ll be proud.”
