HAMPDEN, Maine — A pair of third quarter touchdowns helped Foxcroft Academy break the game open and roll to a 27-7 win over Winslow High School in the Class D North football championship Saturday at Hampden Academy’s Weatherbee Complex.
With the victory, the Ponies (11-0) advanced to the Class D state championship for the fourth year in a row — a first in Maine’s smallest division of 11-man football — and sixth in the last seven seasons. Foxcroft will face South champion Wells High School (10-0) Saturday, Nov. 23 at Lewiston High School. Wells won the Class D South title with a 35-7 victory over Winthrop High School on Friday evening.
The game will be a rematch of last year’s final, a 22-21 Wells victory in Lewiston with the Warriors going ahead on a 2-point conversion completion in the final minute rather than trying a potential tying point after kick.
With Foxcroft leading 7-0 to start the second half, the Ponies fumbled the kickoff and Winslow sophomore Alyx Hardy returned the football 18 yards the other way for the touchdown which with the ensuing PAT tied the game 7-7.
Foxcroft responded with a 6-play, 63-yard touchdown drive to retake the lead. Junior Landon Smith ran through a hole in the left side of the line 40 yards for a touchdown, giving the ponies a 14-7 advantage with the PAT.
“Those things happen in football, that’s part of the game and it was a break for them and they took advantage of it,” Foxcroft head coach Danny White said. “The way we responded right after that, we marched the ball right down the field. Up front we played our best game of the season.”
After a 3-and-out by the defense, Foxcroft found the endzone again. The Ponies moved the football from the team’s own 48 to the Black Raider-30 for a 4th-and-7. On fourth down junior quarterback Griffin Caruso found senior Silas Topolski open down the left side of the field and Topolski made the catch for the touchdown and 21-7 lead with junior Aiden Harvey’s third PAT of the day.
Junior Finn Holmes had a 15-yard touchdown run in the opening quarter and he also ran the ball in from a yard out late in the fourth.
“Offensively we lean on them a little bit and Landon and Finn just wore them down,” White said. “They just kept the pile moving, leaning forward, falling forward. Rather than a 2-yard gain it became a 4-yard gain and 2nd-and-6 vs. 2nd-and-8 and that obviously sets us up well with the lead and running the clock. They executed when they had to. It’s hard to run the football when the other team knows you are going to run the football and we did it well.”
White also credited the Foxcroft defense for its play late in the second half when it stopped Winslow after the Black Raiders got into Pony territory. The defense forced an incompletion on a 2nd-and-7 from the Foxcroft-33 and on third down junior Adian Bryant sacked Winslow senior quarterback Tucker Pomerleau for an 8-yard loss to end the quarter.
The coach said this play was huge considering how Winslow (6-5) would score to start the second half.
“We know the job is not finished, we have a huge task ahead of us,” White said, looking to the Class D championship vs. Wells. “We are familiar with them, they are familiar with us, so there are no secrets involved. They are not going to change for us and we’re probably not going to change much for them. We respect the heck out of them and we know we are going to have to put in a really good week of practice together in order to execute on Saturday.”
