ack on September 30, the Thornton Academy football team welcomed in defending state champion Bonny Eagle for a Class A South showdown. Unfortunately for the Golden Trojans, they would take a 14-13 lead early on before struggling down the stretch in a disappointing 49-14 loss at the hands of the Scots.

While the lopsided loss obviously stung — and most likely lingers in the back of the Trojans’ minds — the TA squad will have a chance for redemption when Bonny Eagle heads to Saco on Saturday for a Class A South semifinal clash.

The Trojans clearly remember the loss well, but head coach Kevin Kezal doesn’t believe his team needs to play up the revenge factor in order to get pumped up for this game.

“We don’t ever talk like that. It’s just game planning and getting ready. They know what’s on the line. They know they have a really good opponent coming in here in a couple days,” Kezal said. “We shouldn’t have to motivate that way. It’s more that they just understand that their season is on the line and we’ve got to play our best football this time of year.”

Kezal will be relying on his four senior captains — Jack Webb, Garret Lynn, Cam Houde and Wyatt LeBlanc — to keep the relatively young TA team focused heading into the playoff showdown.

“We just told them we’re going to need their 100-percent effort on Saturday,” said Webb on his message to the younger Trojans. “Last year we came in and we didn’t get everyone’s 100-percent effort against Scarborough last year, and everyone knows what happened there, so we really need everyone’s 100-percent effort.”

Thornton Academy got the No. 2 seed in the playoffs after Scarborough knocked off Bonny Eagle in the final week of the season which sent the Scots to the third seed — and the Trojans were happy to have a week off.

“It’s good for two reasons. Number one, you can heal up, you know you get bumps and bruises from the season. Our semester is closing up so grades-wise kids get caught up and get everything done,” said Kezal. “The other part is you can kind of go back and look at things that might have given you issues throughout the year, and focus in on a few things that you need to get better at — kind of like almost a preseason-type scenario where you’re going to work on getting a lot more (individual) time, less having to game plan for somebody per se, not that you don’t do any of that, but more just getting back to the basics and fundamentals.”

Another thing getting the No. 2 seed did for TA was give the seniors another chance to play at Hill Stadium.

“It’s a little bit emotional. I love playing here, it’s a great atmosphere every game. It will be tough but we’re hoping to go out with a W,” said Lynn.

“I mean it’s such a special place to play. We are really so lucky to play here. It’s kind of surreal. It’s been a fast four years … a fast four years for sure,” added Webb.

The TA captains know that the Trojans need to step up this week if they want to reach the regional championship game.

“It was a tough loss for us, but it made us realize where we need to be as a team and pushed us every day to get better,” said Lynn on the regular season loss to Bonny Eagle. “At this point I think we can contend for the title, we are getting better every day and I think we can beat anybody.”

“I think they really did out-effort us that game. They punched us in the mouth and we kind of just took it. We’ve got to match that,” added Webb.

One thing that hurt the Trojans in the regular season game was their inability to stop the Scots in third-and-long situations.

“I think the thing is when we took the lead, that next drive we had them third-and-6, and then we had a penalty and they go down and score. The next drive we’ve got them third-and-12 and they convert, so those situations we’ve got to get ourselves off the field in those defensive situations where you get them in a third-and-long, you’ve got to make plays there to get off the field a little bit better,” said Kezal, who also pointed to his team’s struggles in the running game. “Offensively, we did some decent things but we’ve got to run the ball a little bit better than we did last time. Hopefully that will open up our pass game a little better.”

While Houde, Lynn and Webb can make a difference on the field this weekend, LeBlanc has been forced to watch the entire season on the sideline due to a hip injury. Not being able to compete with his teammates has been tough for LeBlanc, but he has tried to contribute in a different way.

“If I’m not at practice, I’m at (physical therapy), and if I’m not at PT, I’m at practice. It sucks coming out here watching and not being able to do anything, but at the same time I’m happy to be here, I’m happy to help in any way I can,” said LeBlanc. “People will ask me questions, I started last year at corner, and I just answer questions that they might have.”

LeBlanc, who is expected to be back for lacrosse season, believes the Trojans simply need to realize the regular season loss doesn’t matter at this point.

“It’s a different game come playoff time. Everybody plays a lot harder and like coach Kezal said to us (Tuesday) at the end of practice, ‘it’s not about who has been the best team throughout the season, it’s who the best team is on the day that we play,’” said LeBlanc. “So we just need to be like ‘I don’t care, nobody cares if they were better than us all throughout the season, that doesn’t matter now.’ We just need to be the better team and play the better game.”

All four senior captains have the same goal and the same mentality heading into Saturday afternoon.

“It really means a lot to us seniors, it could be our last one and (we all) want to go all the way,” said Houde.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.