The numbers 100 and 200 represent milestones this season in the long football rivalry between Portland and Deering. Tonight the schools will meet for the 100th time apart from their annual Thanksgiving Day game, when they meet at 7 p.m. at Deering High.
On Thanksgiving, they will meet on the holiday for the 100th time.
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The stats are from Peter Gribbin, the longtime Fitzpatrick Stadium public-address announcer, former Portland High history teacher and unofficial historian of Portland High.
Tonight’s game has playoff implications for both Deering (3-0) and Portland (2-1), which are heading into the meat of their schedules.
The Rams will play Thornton Academy at home, Scarborough at home, Bonny Eagle away and Cheverus at home.
Portland faces Windham away, Thornton Academy at home, Cheverus at home and South Portland at home. All tough opponents, but both teams have the advantage of three at home.
Before that they’ll look to take care of business tonight.
While Deering has made recent gains on Portland in both regular-season and Thanksgiving games, the Bulldogs still hold a wide series lead.
The schools’ first regular-season meeting was in 1891. With the exception of 1957 through 1966, when they just played on Thanksgiving, and a few early years, Portland and Deering have played in every regular season since 1911, the year of the first Thanksgiving game.
In 1920 the holiday game wasn’t played because of bad weather, making this Thanksgiving the centennial game.
Portland leads the non-Thanksgiving games 61-28 with 10 ties. On the holiday, the lead is 54-38-7. Barring a playoff meeting, Thanksgiving will be the 200th game between the schools. Put the series records together and the Bulldogs have an overall mark of 115-66-17.
The Bulldogs’ lead is the result of some long streaks. It took Deering 20 games to finally beat the Bulldogs in the regular season. The Rams had two ties in that span but didn’t win until 1924. Portland won 10 straight from 1983 to ’92. On Thanksgiving, Portland’s top streak is 11 straight from 1991 through 2001.
Deering’s top holiday streak is seven straight from 2002 to ’08. The Rams have won the last five regular-season games.
The only playoff games between the schools were in 2001, ’02 and ’03. The Bulldogs won the first two, Deering the last, with Portland winning the state title in 2002 and Deering in 2003.
YARMOUTH IMPROVED to 3-0 with a 27-7 win at Traip Academy in a physical game Saturday. While the Rangers are a physical team, Yarmouth, the defending Class C champion, matched Traip’s physicality.
“It was a good old-fashioned game,” said Yarmouth Coach Jim Hartman. “Traip is a good team. They gained 300 yards on us. We haven’t had a physical game like that since last year’s Traip game and the regular-season game against Oak Hill. We rushed for 400 yards and didn’t have any injuries.”
The Clippers host winless Sacopee Valley tonight but say they won’t look ahead to next week’s showdown with Lisbon.
“Sacopee has two good running backs and a wonderful tight end,” said Hartman. “They’re also big and physical.
“Sacopee reminds me of our team three years ago. We knew we were good enough to play in the league but we just couldn’t get it done. We always made the big mistake that cost us. There was a lot of frustration.”
Yarmouth turned it around the following season with an 8-3 record that led to last year’s unbeaten season.
In his first game as a starting running back, Nick Pelletier of Yarmouth averaged 10 yards per carry. The Clippers have a talented, deep backfield.
WITH A 2-1 RECORD, South Portland is in the thick of the Western Class A race. After losing to Cheverus in the opener, the Red Riots have beaten Thornton Academy and Sanford, and are home against Massabesic (3-0) tonight.
“Looking back now, we’ve played one inconsistent half all season and we’ve faced all playoff caliber teams,” said Coach Steve Stinson.
“After the Cheverus game, we got back to focusing on being committed to doing our best as individuals every day. Our goal is to play at a high level every game.”
PORTLAND FEELS comfortable in its offense using freshman Ryan Ruhlin or sophomore Jayvon Pitts-Young at quarterback.
“The way I look at it is that we have two starting quarterbacks,” said Coach Mike Bailey. “We use them in different offenses based on the situation.”
Pitts-Young runs the Wildcat offense to take advantage of his running ability. Ruhlin is the quarterback in the more traditional offenses such as the I and the wing-T.
“When we need a change of pace, I change quarterbacks. We’re trying to bring (Ruhlin) along slowly because he’s a freshman,” said Bailey.
Staff Writer Tom Chard can be reached at 791-6419 or at: tchard@pressherald.com
Twitter: TomChardPPH
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