SOUTH PORTLAND — Perhaps their jack-o’-lantern colors brought them good fortune on Halloween night. Perhaps they’re just better than their regular-season record had suggested.
Whatever the reason, the orange-and-black Biddeford Tigers broke their four-game losing streak Friday night, as they topped South Portland 34-20 in a Western Class A football quarterfinal at Martin Memorial Field. The win marks the first time in 11 years that the Tigers have won a playoff game ”“ they last won in 2003.
Biddeford got the job done, for the most part, on the ground, as senior halfback Dominick Day rushed for 124 yards and three touchdowns and senior fullback Capen Macomber rushed for 40 yards and two touchdowns.
“I think we beat a pretty good football team,” said Biddeford coach Brian Curit.
Curit said that heading into the game the team didn’t think about the fact that they were the underdog.
“Any given day somebody can beat anybody,” he said.
Day said he felt his team showed up in a big way.
“I think we played amazing, good, hard football,” said Day.
When asked about his 65-yard touchdown run, which gave Biddeford a 20-6 lead with less than one minute left to play in the first half, Day said “There’s nothing like getting a touchdown off of a run that far. The adrenaline was going.”
Despite the loss, South Portland also put up impressive numbers on the ground. Senior running back Matthew Stearns rushed for nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns. Stearns left the game with about 10 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, however, with an apparent concussion.
South Portland coach Steve Stinson said he speculated that injuries did play a role in the outcome of the game. Along with Stearns late-game injury, the Red Riots’ starting wide receiver Hayden Owen was injured coming into the game, Stinson said.
“We pretty much used him as a decoy throughout the game,” Stinson said of Owen.
Biddeford made the 20-mile trip north as the No. 6 seed in the conference, with a regular-season record of 3-5, while the host Red Riots were the No. 3 seed, with a record of 5-3. In the two teams’ regular-season matchup, which was played in Biddeford on Oct. 17, the result was nearly the opposite of last night’s, with South Portland besting Biddeford by two touchdowns in a 42-28 victory.
The Tigers now head to Standish next weekend to face the No. 2-seeded Bonny Eagle Scots, who went 5-3 in the regular season, in a Western Class A semifinal.
— Angelo J. Verzoni is a copy editor and freelancer for the Journal Tribune. He can be contacted at sports@journaltribune.com
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