The road more traveled was a cruel place for several unbeaten high school football teams last weekend.

The Brewer Witches were able to spoil Morse of Bath’s Homecoming, but only by scoring the decisive touchdown and two-point conversion with 1:03 left to earn a 22-21 win against a Shipbuilders’ squad that had scored just one TD in its previous three games.

“You have to play well to win on the road,” said Brewer coach Ed Ortego. “That was by far our worst-executed game this season. We weren’t flat, Morse just matched us hit for hit. They’re a pretty good defensive team.”

Three other Eastern Maine unbeatens – Bangor, Messalonskee of Oakland and Belfast – weren’t as fortunate, and none of the losses was close.

Bangor lost at Skowhegan 44-8, Belfast scored first but lost at unbeaten York 33-6, and Messalonskee trekked to Farmington and was handed a 27-0 pasting by the Mt. Blue Cougars.

Certainly the quality of the opponents had much to do with the losses.

“A lot of it comes down to the talent on the field, and who plays to the level of that talent,” said Foxcroft Academy coach Paul Withee, whose team had its 14-game winning streak ended two weekends ago in a 34-21 loss at Bucksport.

The traditional strength of such programs as Mt. Blue and Lawrence have made Caldwell Field in Farmington and Keyes Field in Fairfield home fields to fear over the years, and few teams enjoy the trip up Interstate 95 to Cameron Stadium in Bangor.

“Some places are just harder to play at than others,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett. “We had always played well at Skowhegan until the other night, but Mt. Blue has always been a tough place to play, and so has Lawrence, and Waterville’s tough because the game’s on Saturday.”

But there are other factors come into play when the schedule dictates a road trip.

The bus trip itself is a consideration, with the longer the ride the more reason for concern.

“It’s always a worry,” said Ortego, whose 4-0 Witches face another big road test Friday night at 3-1 Belfast. “You have a two-plus hour ride in a school bus, and you can’t help but be a little groggy. When you get off the bus you really have to tune yourself up.”

Hostile crowds, a cramped visitors’ locker room, unfamiliar field conditions, and such seemingly minor intangibles as not having music blaring on the field during pre-game warmups can further add to the long, strange trip experience.

“You don’t have that familiarity of being at home,” said Withee. “You’re kind of out of your element in terms of doing the same things the same way on the night of a game.”

Most coaches try to schedule pre-game warm-ups at the same time on the road as at home in order to lend a sense of normalcy to those preparations.

“Once we arrive for the game, we generally get on the same schedule as we would for a home game, first taking the field about 5:40 to begin pre-game preparations,” said Ortego. “We try to keep as close to the same schedule as we can.”

In many cases, making the best of a road trip ultimately can be mind over matter.

“I’ve always felt that playing on the road was a positive, because you’ve got the kids on the bus together for a longer time thinking about the game,” said Hackett. “I don’t know if we thought that way because we didn’t have a choice and wanted to make a positive out of it or if there was merit to it, but that’s the way we’ve always felt.

“I know the kids like to play in front of the home crowd,” said Hackett. “But I hope it really doesn’t matter, because what you really hope for now is to be playing in Portland at the end of the season.”

An unassuming unbeaten

Who’s the only undefeated football team left in the Pine Tree Conference Class A ranks?

If traditional powers are coming to mind, guess again.

Only Windham, a second-year Class A program that defies its geographic location just north of Gorham to play football in Eastern Maine, has emerged from the first half of the regular season unscathed.

Though their opponents to date – Lewiston, Massabesic of Waterboro, Brunswick and Lawrence – have a combined record of 3-13 – Windham nevertheless has done what no other PTC A team has accomplished.

Coach Matt Perkins’s club figured to be improved this season, given that 16 starters returned from last fall’s 3-5 team. Senior running back Chris Molleur paves the way, averaging well over 100 rushing yards per game after last Friday night’s 205-yard effort in a 21-6 victory against Lawrence at Fairfield.

But Windham’s rise is symbolic of the growth of high school football in the southern part of the state, along with the likes of Gorham, the reigning Western B champion that is likely to move to Class A in 2005.

This marks the Eagles’ sixth year of competitive football, the first two years in the Maine Principals’ Association developmental league, then two years in Western Maine Class B, and for the last two years in Eastern A.

Windham will try to reach 5-0 when it hosts 1-3 Mount Ararat of Topsham on Friday night. Then comes perhaps the Eagles’ biggest regular-season test, at 3-1 Gardiner on Oct. 8.

After the Gardiner matchup Windham will end regular-season play against Edward Little of Auburn (currently 1-3) and Oxford Hills of South Paris (2-2), leaving the Eagles poised for a high finish in the Crabtree Point System that ultimately determines seedings for the Eastern A playoffs.

Windham currently has 118.75 Crabtree points, according to the latest unofficial ratings, tops in the PTC Class A South and tied for second overall in the conference with 3-1 Messalonskee of Oakland. Mt. Blue of Farmington, also 3-1, leads the points with 125.00.