The Kora Shriners’ venerable Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic, which divvies up Maine’s top high school senior football players, celebrated its 26th year at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford on Saturday evening, with the West emerging handily victorious over the East, 45-21.
Different players located the West’s edge in different areas of the game. Bonny Eagle’s Zach Dubiel (QB) figured his team’s closeness gave them the advantage.
“I personally think that we bonded very well; everybody on this team became really tight, like brothers,” Dubiel said. “I felt like I was playing with people I’ve been playing with my whole four years of high school. I think that was the deciding factor.”
Westbrook’s Maurice Johnson emphasized something a bit more direct:
“It’s pretty much our defense,” he said. “All week our coach has been telling us, ‘Hey, everybody do their job; it’s not a one-person game, it’s a team game right here, so do your job and we’ll come out with a win.”
And South Portland’s Matt Stearns pointed to simple preparation:
“All week we just busted our butts. We worked hard, we grinded out every single day. It’s hard coming back from off-season, from not having played for a long time.”
Stearns returned to camaraderie, though: “You step in and you get a mold of your teammates and it’s awesome, because some of these guys, you didn’t even like before. You hated going against them. Then you get to know them, you’re like, ‘These guys are stand-up guys.’”
The West kicked off the scoring early, and in spectacular fashion. QB Noah Nelson (Falmouth) found Matt Vigue (Spruce Mountain) for a 71-yard pass TD, and Adam Merrill (Oak Hill) proved good for the PAT.
The team added another seven points near the end of the first, when Nelson lobbed from the 25 to the end zone, where a leaping Gabe Seeley (Leavitt) pulled in the difficult pass one-handed, then crashed to the turf.
Nelson – who eventually took West MVP honors – teamed up with Seeley again in the second quarter to put their squad on top 26-7. In the third, Dubiel, one of the state’s best QBs on the run, carried a short keeper for 38-13 to put the game essentially out of the East’s reach. Both teams added one final TD before the end, for the 45-21 result.
The West now leads the series all-time at 18-8, though the East has won big game the past two years.
More important than the action itself, though, is what it means for the players. For all of them, the Lobster Bowl is their last opportunity, ever, to play in a high school football game. And most of them are hanging up their cleats entirely.
“It means everything to all of us – us, the East, every single player, because this is our last high school game,” said Bonny Eagle’s Dubiel. “No matter what, we’re not going to play another high school game. It’s awesome for us that we won, but the East, still, I bet they had a great time, playing their last game.
“It was a great feeling.”
The game represented something additional to Westbrook’s Johnson, who never got the opportunity to bid football a proper farewell during the school season.
“It means a lot to me,” he said. “I didn’t get to play in my final playoff game, against Marshwood – I was injured with a concussion.
“I came out with these guys, and we’re all rivals, and the first two days, it was kind of shaky out there, but the third day we all bonded all together. It’s like, ‘It’s football, gotta love it.’”
Stearns, who quite obviously gave 110 percent every time he took to the field for South Portland, wanted to recapture that same energy one last time.
“I knew, beginning of my senior year, this was going to be my last year playing, and I wanted to go out with a bang,” he said. “So I treated every game as though it was my last, and I believe mostly everyone else did too.
“That was the emphasis we pushed this week, was that, even if you’re going to college, going to the military – whatever you’re doing after high school…we want to represent the West, and do it with pride.”
Dubiel won the Class A John R. Schmidlin trophy, awarded for loyalty, team play, citizenship and reliability. Dubiel was accompanied on the West squad by fellow Scots Ben Malloy and Luke Winslow.
Likewise, a bevy of other top talent from across southern Maine also dotted both rosters. Quinn Piland (Lake Region); Hayden Owen (South Portland); Derek Breunig (Westbrook); Zach Mills (Gorham); and Andrew Simons (Scarborough) all lined up for the West, and Matt Roy (Windham); Tanner Laberge (Windham); and Zack Davis (Windham) took to the field for the East.
But in the end, the game served yet another goal: sick kids. To participate at all, players had to raise several hundred dollars, and donation to individual athletes can be made online each year.
“We all raised over $400 to be here,” said Dubiel. “It’s all going to a good cause, the Shriners hospitals, so it’s a great feeling. It’s fun to play football and do it for a great cause.”
“The first day of practice, that was the first line they said to us: ‘This is a charity game,”’ said Johnson. “By the end of the day, if they’re keeping score on the board, you want to win, but it’s also for the kids.”
“The fact that we can do this, come out here and play for these children, and the Shriners – it’s amazing,” said Stearns. “The amount of expectations that are put on this game and on the players is astounding, and how we react to it, how we overcome it, is just awesome. The fact that we can raise the money, then come out here and bust our butts all week and finally come out here and play on Saturday, for these children and the Shriners – it’s a challenge we liked accepting.”
The Maine Kora Shriners are based in Lewiston, and can be found online at www.korashriners.org.
For more photos of the game, visit www.keepmecurrent.com/sports, and follow @CurrentSportsME on Twitter.
The West’s Maurice Johnson (Westbrook) fends off a would-be tackler.
The West’s Zach Dubiel (Bonny Eagle) has been one of the State’s best running QBs in recent years.
The East’s Zack Davis (Windham) throws out an arm to keep clear of opponents.
West defensive back Matt Stearns (South Portland) throws East slot receiver Cody Soucier (Madison) groundward.
Ben Malloy (Bonny Eagle) preps to run a receiving route for the West.
Quinn Piland (Lake Region) takes off on a receiving route for the West.
The West’s Zach Mills (Gorham) grabs a breath between plays.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
