The seniors on the Foxcroft Academy football team entered Saturday’s Class C state championship game with plenty of title-game experience, but not all the sort they wanted to take with them beyond their playing days.

In both 2005 and 2006, the 18 seniors on the Ponies’ roster had experienced Fitzpatrick Stadium heartbreak, foiled by a goal-line stand in the final minute two years ago against Lisbon and handed a 30-14 loss by the Greyhounds last November.

But those disappointments didn’t add pressure as the most veteran of Ponies faced not only a third straight trip to Portland, but their final high school game. Instead they provided the wisdom and motivation that helped Foxcroft defeat Boothbay 26-8 for the school’s first state title in football since 2003.

“You sometimes get the mind-set that you can’t win the big one, so to speak, but these kids are winners no matter how you look at it,” said Foxcroft coach Paul Withee. “That’s how we approached [Saturday], no different than any other time.

“It’s not last year’s team, it’s a different team completely, and there was a lot of confidence in our senior leadership. These were kids that have been playing for us for three years and have played in three of these games. They really had the right mental attitude going into this and were really focused. I felt very confident going into this game.”

That confidence was most in evidence when the Ponies were challenged, as Boothbay scored late in the first half to cut its deficit to 20-8 and then received the kickoff to open the second half with a chance to pull closer and perhaps create some angst among the Foxcroft partisans.

“When you have a lead like that it’s really easy to start playing relaxed and let things go that we normally wouldn’t,” said senior safety and wide receiver Jason Gould. “That’s what the coaches preached, that the first four minutes of the second half were the most important.”

The Seahawks did move into Foxcroft territory on that first possession of the third quarter, but some aggressive work by defensive back Alex Kasprzak induced an offensive pass interference penalty against Boothbay that ended that threat.

Foxcroft then got its third touchdown pass of the day from quarterback Jamie Nason to Gould, and the Ponies were back in control.

“I couldn’t ask for more, this is all I wanted to do,” said Gould. “My senior year I had one goal, and that was states for football, and we did it.”

Anderson to hang up whistle

Saturday’s Class C football state final represented a milestone for one of Eastern Maine’s best-known football officials.

Foxcroft Academy’s 26-8 victory over Boothbay marked the final time wearing the striped shirt for Bangor’s Bruce Anderson, who served as the game’s linesman as part of the six-man on-field officiating crew led by referee Ralph Damren.

Anderson has decided to retire from football officiating after 39 years, a tenure that began during the late 1960s at the urging of J. Henry “Hank” Cameron, a longtime football and basketball official and assigner who was Anderson’s boss when both worked at Garland Street Junior High School – now the William S. Cohen Middle School – in Bangor.

Anderson also was a well-respected basketball official before retiring in recent years, and now serves as a high school basketball analyst for WZON radio.

The former physical education teacher continues to spend his spring and summer months one of the top baseball umpires in the region.

Baker aids Bonny Eagle staff

While the Bonny Eagle of Standish coaching staff had a distinct Lawrence flavor, with former Lawrence quarterback Kevin Cooper as the Scots head coach and former high school teammate John Suttie and ex-Bulldog coach Earle

“Pete” Cooper as two of his assistants, the staff also included an Eastern Maine presence.

Former Old Town head coach Dan Baker served as Bonny Eagle’s defensive line coach and assisted with the offensive line this season, including Saturday’s 34-14 win over Lawrence of Fairfield in the Class A state final.

Baker, who served as an assistant coach at Old Town from 1997 to 2000, was the school’s varsity football coach for three years before resigning after the 2005 season.

He and his family have since moved to Portland, and Baker landed a job this year as a world history teacher at Bonny Eagle as well as an assistant football coach.

Baker was credited by Suttie, who coached Noble of North Berwick to the 1997 Class A state championship before joining Cooper’s staff at Bonny Eagle, for his work on the technological side of game preparation, such as dealing with game films and using computers to enhance that effort.

Baker was an all-LTC and all-state linebacker and offensive guard during his playing days at Old Town, from where he graduated in 1992.