CAPE ELIZABETH – Last season, the Cape Elizabeth football team got over the hump and got past Mountain Valley to earn the Class B western championship and a spot in the Class B title game.

Unfortunately, the Capers’ bid for a perfect season fell one game short as they lost to Leavitt in the title game 35-21.

While the final game didn’t turn out the way they wanted, it can’t be denied that the Capers had a dominant 2009 season, outscoring opponents 343-27.

But none of that counts for anything in 2010 as the Capers get ready for the season, the slate is clean and Cape coach Aaron Filieo knows that the competition is improving and the Capers need to work hard to stay on top.

The Capers open the 2010 regular season this Saturday as they travel to Poland for a 1:30 p.m. game. Last season, the Capers blanked Poland 32-0 in the opener, but Filieo expects to have a tougher time this season. “They get better every year,” he said. “They’ve got some athletes, so they’ll definitely be a strong opening game opponent.”

As for the rest of Class B, for the past few seasons, it has seemed to come down to a battle between Cape and Mountain Valley, with the rest of the teams back in the pack. Filieo said he expects some other teams to challenge the Capers and the Falcons this season. “I think Falmouth is very talented, they have a lot of great skill players,” he said. “Wells is extremely well-coached and they are always going to be in the hunt and York is awesome.”

On Friday, the Capers had one last tuneup before the regular season, defeating Old Orchard Beach 29-0 at Hannaford Field. After the game, Filieo said that while the game didn’t count, it was still valuable to the coaching staff and the team, adding that he felt it was good for his players to go up against some live competition instead of just practicing against their teammates. “The varsity goes against the freshmen and sophomores (in practice), so it’s good to go against a different color jersey for sure,” Filieo said.

While the Capers had a controlled scrimmage at Boothbay Harbor earlier in the week, Filieo said the contest against the Seagulls more closely resembled a regular season game. In Boothbay, the coaches were on the field, so it was more like a practice scrimmage than a game. Against the Seagulls, the only difference between the scrimmage and a regular game was that the clock only stopped on time outs and after scores.

Filieo said playing under game-like conditions allows the coaching staff to get a good feel for how the team is coming together, adding that he liked what he saw from his team on Friday. “I certainly did,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are new to the varsity program, and we’ve obviously been working hard to bring things together and you can only really tell how things are working against live competition, when the coaches aren’t on the field.”

While the score wasn’t close, Filieo said Old Orchard Beach provided good competition for the Capers. “They’ve got some guys who were flying around. They definitely gave us a good look today,” he said.

The coach said he used the game against the Seagulls to try and see how his team executed a variety of different schemes. While the Capers featured a run-heavy offense against Old Orchard Beach on Friday, the coach said that wasn’t necessarily what the Capers would emphasize when the regular season gets under way next week.

“I was trying to get a feel for things, (trying) a variety of different things that we just wanted to take a look at,” Filieo said. “It’s hard to tell what our emphasis is going to be at this point, it will tend to find itself as we progress.”

Tom Harrington of Cape Elizabeth closes in on Old Orchard Beach quarterback Cam Madden as he throws a pass on Friday.
Staff photo by Mike Higgins