SOUTH BERWICK — Andrew Goodwin is intent on furthering two legacies as he prepares for his final high school football game.

As the starting fullback and middle linebacker for Marshwood High, the first order of business is helping to bring home another Gold Ball for the Hawks’ trophy case. That would be the 21st football championship in school history, and the team’s sixth title since 2014.

But there is also the Goodwin family name to uphold. His older brothers – Matt and Carson Goodwin – both closed their careers in purple and white with a Class B championship, in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

“I’m just thinking like it’s my last game, I’ve got to leave it all out there,” Andrew Goodwin said before Tuesday’s practice. “I want to get at least a touchdown. I don’t want to end up on a scoreless night for me. I just want to leave a good name for the Goodwins.”

Marshwood (8-3) will face Windham (9-0) in the Class B state championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Portland’s Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Goodwin is a major reason why the Hawks, who by their standards stumbled through a 5-3 regular season, are playing in their seventh title game in Coach Alex Rotsko’s nine seasons at the school.

Last Saturday, with top-seeded Portland overplaying jet sweep fakes to wingback Cam Cornett, Goodwin romped through the middle of the Bulldogs’ defense for 134 yards and four touchdowns as Marshwood rolled to a 35-0 win.

“All year he’s definitely been one of the guys who you know what you’re going to get from him,” said senior quarterback and captain Aidan Sullivan. “He’s just a hard worker. He knows what he wants. He wants to win. When it’s him against someone else I’d pretty much bet on him every single time.”

For the season, Goodwin has rushed for 842 yards and 15 touchdowns, using a combination of balance, vision, and a determined unwillingness to be taken down.

“A word to describe him is grit,” said Hayden Trull, a starting outside linebacker and one of Marshwood’s senior captains. “He’s very driven. The entire Goodwin family they all run on drive and toughness.”

Goodwin is also a weapon in the Hawks’ screen passing game with 15 catches for another 253 yards. He’s Marshwood’s middle linebacker and leading tackler for a defense that has peaked in the playoffs. As a punter, he’s averaging 41.4 yards per boot. In fact, Goodwin is involved in every facet of the game.

“He’s on just about every special team because he’s our best player on a lot of the special teams,” Rotsko said. “You’d like to get a kid like him some rest but we can’t afford to take him off some of the special teams.”

Goodwin, 18, already shares similarities with his older brothers. Matt and Carson were also fullback/linebackers. And all three really came into their own as seniors, Rotsko said.

But the older brothers were only defensive starters, getting spot duty at fullback. Both were stuck behind 2019 Fitzpatrick Trophy winner Justin Bryant who was a four-year starter.

“Justin Bryant was a really good running back, obviously. He won the Fitz,” Andrew Goodwin said. “I just got a better chance than they had to do something. I mean if they’d had the chance they could have done just as good.”

Matt Goodwin showed that in the 2017 championship game, running for 124 yards on three carries with a 64-yard touchdown after Bryant injured his ankle early in a 63-20 win against Skowhegan.

“I was there. I don’t know if I was paying enough attention as I should have for my brother but, I did see his big breakaway touchdown,” Andrew said with a small laugh.

Another difference among the Goodwin siblings is, because of the pandemic, Andrew didn’t get a junior season to grow into an expanded role. Maine was one of four states that did not have a tackle football season in the 2020-21 school year. As a sophomore he had been a junior varsity player.

“I was very worried because junior year is a big year for you. That’s when you usually start to get a lot more varsity time,” he said.

Goodwin was also learning new positions. He was switched from cornerback to outside linebacker and eventually to inside linebacker. On offense, he had played both the left and right wingback positions in Rotsko’s Wing-T offense before being moved to fullback, a position he preferred but had last played in middle school.

“It was just a lot to learn in one year,” Goodwin said. “Our whole team was going through that and it just clicked in the playoffs.”

Goodwin said he didn’t really feel like a senior until the playoffs.

“That’s when it actually hit me. That’s when I thought, I need to play my best because there’s no tomorrow, so it’s great getting to the state game.”

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