The high school football season has hit its midway point.

South Portland is trending upwards, Cape Elizabeth is going the other way and Scarborough is still seeking its first victory.

The Red Riots made it two in a row on the road and three straight victories overall last Saturday with a 61-14 romp at Noble. South Portland blew it open early, got four touchdowns apiece from Hayden Owen and Matt Stearns and improved to 3-1 on the season.

“Anytime in our conference when you can win back-to-back road games, it’s a good thing,” said South Portland coach Steve Stinson. “We wanted to impose our will on both sides of the ball and we did that. We stayed on them and handled our business well. With Hayden, Matt and Jaren Muller at fullback, we have some good options.”

The Red Riots (third behind Thornton Academy and Bonny Eagle in the Western Class A Crabtree Points standings) return home Friday to host 2-2 Sanford (see theforecaster.net for game story). Last year, South Portland won at the Spartans, 21-10, in the regular season, then were upset at home by Sanford in the quarterfinals, 33-32.

“We’ve got a good history with them in recent years,” Stinson said. “The guys are excited to play them and excited to play at home. It should be a great high school football game. They’re a good team. Just like last year. They’re big and aggressive.”

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Cape Elizabeth lost its second in a row Friday, 34-6, to visiting Spruce Mountain and fell to 2-2 on the season.

After falling behind, 14-0, the Capers got on the board when Nate Weare (109 yards on 20 carries) scored on a short run.

“It’s almost like we’re kind of starting over,” Cape Elizabeth coach Aaron Filieo said. “Weare ran a little bit sophomore year. Now that we have a full complement of linemen, we decided he could kind of give us a spark, which he did, but a little too late.”

The Phoenix didn’t allow another point and put the game away by halftime before winning 28.

“We just don’t have a lot of depth in the secondary,” Filieo said. “They found that and exploited it. We made some adjustments, but we didn’t necessarily need it in the second half as far as the passing game goes.”

Cape Elizabeth (fifth in the Western B Crabtrees) returns to action Saturday when it hosts 1-3 Freeport. Last year, the Capers beat the host Falcons, 42-22.

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Scarborough fell to 0-4 with a 49-6 home loss to Bonny Eagle.

“We’ve had a rough three weeks playing three of the best teams in the state of Maine,” said Red Storm coach Lance Johnson, alluding to previous games against Bangor and Thornton Academy. “I feel that we’ve had some success moving the ball at times and our players are improving. We continue to work hard in practice and are learning how to compete at the varsity level.”

The Red Storm (seventh in Western A) hope for their first victory Friday when they visit 3-1 Biddeford. Last year, Scarborough beat the visiting Tigers, 41-21, then did it again in the quarterfinals, 45-19.

“Moving forward, the schedule does get easier for us,” Johnson said. “I’m very pleased with the attitude and effort we continue to get from our players. I’m confident that there are some winnable games remaining on our schedule and we fully expect to be playing in the playoffs.”

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.


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