For a rivalry that has fast become one of the fiercest in Maine and even sparked a documentary film, the latest clash between the gridiron combatants from Cape Elizabeth and Mountain Valley high schools was sorely lacking in the drama department.

The Capers, however, aren’t about to complain.

Cape closed the regular season with an emphatic 34-0 blanking of its arch foe from Rumford in Friday night’s football game before a home crowd that packed the new bleachers at Hannaford Field.

The Capers improved to 9-0 and shored up the No. 1 seed heading into the Western Maine Class B playoffs. They’ll host No. 4 Wells in Saturday’s semifinal scheduled for 1 p.m. Cape won 40-0 when the teams met in the regular season.

The defending state champion Falcons, meanwhile, dropped their second straight game and fell to 7-2. They’ll play York in the semifinals, a team they lost to 33-14 two weeks back.

Cape and Mountain Valley have met for the regional championship the past three seasons, with the Capers playing second fiddle on each occasion. In fact, The Falcons were 5-1 against Cape in the past six meetings, their lone setback coming at a pre-bleacher Hannaford Field in the 2007 regular season, 16-14. As documented in the film “The Rivals,” Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward was not too impressed with Cape’s “pitch-and-catch” offense that edged his team. The Falcons brought a ball control style into the playoff encounter two weeks later and shut down the Cape aerial attack en route to a 10-0 victory.

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Don’t expect a similar reversal should the teams meet once again for the opportunity to play for the Gold Ball. Yes, the Capers remained prolific throwing the ball on Friday, but they also doubled up on the Falcons in ground yardage and were the more physical team. Mountain Valley managed a measly 35 yards of offense in the first half, more than half the yards coming on a single pass with seconds left and the Falcons trailing 20-0.

And Aylward couldn’t fault his team’s effort. The Falcons were simply overmatched.

“We played much harder,” Aylward said. “I thought last week against York we took a bunch in the face and we never recovered. I didn’t even realize it was 20-0 at halftime. I was in there thinking it was like 13-0. I just felt like we played really well because we played so hard. The big-played us. They’re terrific.”

After fumbling away its first possession, Cape marched 61 yards on its second series, with Tommy Foden running it around the right side and crossing the goal line standing for an 8-yard touchdown. Matt Donovan’s kick made it 7-0 with 3:03 left in the first. Mountain Valley went three-and-out and on the next play, Cape quarterback Ezra Wolfinger hit Finn Melanson in stride at full extension between two defenders for a 58-yard TD strike, the first of three between the two. The kick failed and it was 13-0 with 1:26 to go in the first.

Foden broke through the middle, shedding tacklers on his way to a 16-yard score with 1:41 remaining in the second quarter, and the rout was on.

“This is finally our year to compete,” Foden said. “They’ve always come into the game as the heavy favorite. In our minds, that’s what we were this year, so we just came out, produced and did what we do. On defense, we knew everything they were going to do. The linebackers had a huge game.”

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Mountain Valley managed only 110 yards of offense, compared to 440 for Cape. Foden picked up 98 yards on 21 carries, 71 of those yards coming in the first half. The Cape starters got to take most of the final quarter off.

“Tommy, you saw the way he was running the ball,” said Cape coach Aaron Filieo. “Every time I thought he was down, he wasn’t. He doesn’t go down. He gets tough, tough yards. I thought to go out and play physical with them was good for us and was a good tone setter.

“We wanted to come out and jump on them. We knew it would take a couple of touchdowns to put them back on their heels a little bit. Those kids are tough and they have a lot of pride.”

Wolfinger completed 11 of 14 passes for 211 yards, and had a pair of interceptions on the defensive end. Melanson reeled in five catches from Wolfinger for 124 yards and three TDs, each grab seemingly more impressive than the previous one.

Cape opened the second half by foiling Mountain Valley’s onside kick attempt with a clean recovery, then going 55 yards in six plays, the final one a 31-yard TD grab by Melanson. With the kick, it was 27-0 with 9:11 left in the third. Mountain Valley moved the ball on its next drive before being stopped at the 1 on a fourth-and-goal play.

The Capers proceeded to strut 99 yards on 13 plays over six minutes to put the icing on the cake, an awe-inspiring catch by Melanson in the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown. Wolfinger lobbed a jump ball up while under pressure. Melanson went up to snatch it out of the mitts of defensive back Cam Kaubris, not only preventing an interception, but also maintaining possession on the way down and getting a foot in bounds. It wasn’t how it was drawn up, but Melanson made it happen, as he’s been doing all season.

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“That’s not how it was designed,” Filieo said. “Finn was supposed to run a shorter pattern. (Ezra) came off the sideline and I said, ‘You know what Ezra? I realized tonight that you’re not really as good a quarterback as we all think you are. It’s Finn.’ I just don’t understand how he does that. I just don’t get it.”

Foden has become used to watching his teammate make incredible catches. “That’s old hat for him,” he said.

As impressive and balanced as the offense was, the defense was even better. It has allowed only 27 points this season, with six shutouts to its credit. Mountain Valley was averaging more than 30 points a game going into Friday night. Kaubris, the Falcons starting quarterback, was sacked twice and completed just one pass out of his seven attempts. Cyrus Wolfinger also came up with an interception late in the game off the Mountain Valley backup.

“Our defense is progressively getting better every single week,” Filieo said. “I like the way our guys don’t panic. If they rip off a big play, we’re able to respond. We have a bend-but-don’t-break philosophy. And we’re stingy.”

“They’re a complete football team,” Aylward said. “Anyone who thinks they have a chink in their armor, be my guest and try to find it.”


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