DOVER-FOXCROFT – Foxcroft Academy football coach Paul Withee wasn’t sure that 2005 would be a year his Ponies would contend for Eastern Maine and state championship honors when preseason practices began in mid-August.

But steady improvement fueled by two defining moments have landed Foxcroft back in the Eastern Maine Class C title game for the fifth consecutive year, as the No. 2 Ponies (9-1) will square off against No. 1 Mattanawcook Academy (9-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Lincoln.

“We actually thought it might be another year before we were going to actually be in this position, but the kids have risen to the occasion,” said Withee, whose Ponies take a nine-game winning streak into the contest. “Each of our seniors has played at a level above what I anticipated at the start of the season, and we look at this as a little icing on the end of the season, being one game away from getting a chance to go back to Portland and see if we do it again.”

After defeating Lisbon to win the 2003 state championship game in Portland, Foxcroft came up inches short of a return trip a year ago on a missed two-point conversion in the final minute of a one-point loss at Bucksport in the EM final.

And with a graduating class that included Fitzpatrick Trophy finalist Bobby Gilbert, some thought the Ponies might take a step back in 2005 – a sentiment that was boosted when Foxcroft dropped its season opener at Rockland and trailed Livermore Falls 14-7 at halftime of its home opener the following weekend.

Seeing that the Ponies hadn’t lost at home since 2001, things were getting serious.

“As captains, we all stood up at halftime and pretty much laid into the team,” said senior offensive tackle and linebacker Josh Pelletier. “We told the younger guys how we never lose at home. After that got through to everyone, we were on fire from there.”

Indeed, the Ponies outscored Livermore Falls 33-0 in the second half of that game, and have been undefeated ever since.

Their biggest challenge, in fact, came in Week 6 at the preseason favorite in the division, the Mattawancook Academy Lynx, but Foxcroft used a fourth-quarter goal-line stand to preserve a 14-12 victory.

The Lynx, who retained possession of the ball after Foxcroft was called for roughing the kicker, drove to a first-and-goal at the FA 5. Mattanawcook would run four more plays – with Pelletier coming up with a quarterback sack and another tackle for loss – before missing a field goal with 6:11 left in the game.

“Once they got that momentum by getting the [roughing-the-kicker] penalty and getting the drive going, they were coming right at us,” said senior fullback-linebacker James McPhee. “We just needed to keep our mental toughness and not get freaked out by it, and just keep our heads in the game and know we could still stop them.”

“Coming into the season everyone ranked us low, and that just showed that we were just as good as any team in the league, if not the best,” added senior wideout-defensive back Scott McKusick.

In the last four weeks the Ponies have defeated Stearns of Millinocket, John Bapst of Bangor, Dexter and first-round playoff foe Orono by a combined 202-21.

“We didn’t necessarily look at the opponent but ourselves, and did we get better from the previous week,” Withee said. “We tried to improve upon the way we played each week, and I can honestly say that I really think our kids have done an outstanding job of that.”

Now, armed with the same record as Mattanawcook as well as a head-to-head win over the Lynx, Foxcroft would like to be playing the Eastern Maine final at Oakes Field in Dover-Foxcroft, where no member of the current team has ever experienced a varsity loss.

But the Crabtree points that determine the seedings says otherwise, thus Foxcroft will make a return trip to Lincoln in search of yet another defining moment.

“We’ve got to go up there and play outstanding football again and just continue to play the way we’ve played the last three or four weeks,” said Withee. “We’ve got to continue to believe in ourselves, and hopefully things will turn out on our end.”