Fans welcome home the new football state champions
NOV 11, 2023
BAR HARBOR—The No. 3 MDI High School Trojan football team shut out the No. 2 Greely Rangers, 28-0, Saturday afternoon making history for the high school’s athletic department, pulling a community together, and for the first time ever bringing home the state championship football crown to Mount Desert Island.
The game brought the Trojans not just a state championship, but a 9-1 record for the season in the 8-player Large School league at Cameron Stadium in Bangor. Greely finished 6-4.
“They’ve been playing football at MDI since 1968, and years before that they were playing at Bar Harbor High School,” MDI Coach Mark Shields said to the Portland Press Herald. “To finally get it done, it feels pretty good.”
MDI’s senior quarterback Spencer Laurendeau got the Trojans on the board with the first touchdown in the starting quarter, during the Trojans’ first drive, notching it in from the one-yard line.
In the second quarter, with less than a minute left, MDI’s senior running back Jacob Shields tossed the ball to junior wideout Jarron Biekert in the endzone. Biekert showed off some ball handling finesse, holding on despite the Ranger pressure. The touchdown came after a 79-yard drive. The Trojans’ brought the half-time lead to 16-0.
During the dynamic third quarter, MDI flew ahead and secured the 28-0 win with a touchdown pass and then with a return on a Greely fumble. The first touchdown was a 38-yard bullet from Spencer Laurendeau to an undefended Cal Hodgdon. Greely, had been heavily defending Laurendeau, anticipating MDI to continue its running-focused offense. Not even sixty seconds later, Junior Evan MacKenzie took advantage of Greely’s fumble, returning the ball 17 yards for MDI’s final touchdown.
The Trojans’ focus on fundamentals kept Greely scoreless. Greely’s quarterback left in the second quarter because of an injury to his arm.
During the game, photographer Walter Churchill was smashed into while on the sidelines while taking photos. Churchill has been photographing all MDI sporting events for years. In 2016, WDEA’s Chris Popper wrote, “His photos chronicle the best in the MDI High School Community. He takes pictures of the players in action, the band, the fans. And he uploads them all without watermarks so students, families and friends can use them on their own social media pages.”
Popper has posted on his Facebook page that Churchill is currently at the hospital being checked out. WDEA live streamed the game for those who couldn’t attend in person.
Photo courtesy of Mandy Fountaine
BED RACES
We posted about the Bar Harbor Bed Races earlier today, but it was filled with so many photos that a lot of email servers put it in spam. You can check it out here if you want another moment of joy.
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