Dan Cooper stood surrounded by his fired-up Brunswick High School football team last Friday night after a come-from-behind 42- 28 Eastern Maine Class B semifinal victory over fifth-seeded Skowhegan.
The win over the Indians meant the top-seeded Dragons were about to do something they had never done, host a regional final, with No. 2 Cony (a 41-15 semifinal victor over No. 3 Messalonskee) the opponent.
Digging back through the archives, Cooper may very well be right.
One thing, though, is for certain, fans coming tonight for the 7 p.m. contest need to plan on arriving early. When Cony visited Brunswick back on Sept. 20, the joint was packed.
“It is awesome to be able to host a meaningful game in the playoffs,” said Cooper, who has compiled a 52-32 coaching mark, including the playoffs, since taking over for Dick Leavitt in 2005. “More importantly, it’s so tough to win on the road in the postseason and we’ll take any advantage we can get to get to that state game. The experience our players will have this Friday night will be one they’ll remember for a lifetime. I’m so happy for them. They’ve busted their humps to be in this position.”
Linebackers
Cooper has been adamant that his Dragons are not about individual statistics. Quite frankly, the personable coach will give the typical answer, “we are only worried about the team and getting victories.”
But, for those paying close attention, senior linebackers Jacob Duffy, Nick Dodson and Lucas McCue, along with junior linebacker Alex Bandouveres, have been the glue that have kept the Dragon defense together. In the spread offense-oriented Eastern B, the Brunswick defense has often bent but has rarely broken while chasing wide receivers, running backs and tight ends all over the field while strong-armed quarterbacks fired away.
Even in Brunswick’s 54-38 regular season win in Week 3 against these same Cony Rams, the Dragons played as solid of a first half as a defense can have against the Ben Lucas-led Rams, who lit it up in the second half to make a game of it before eventually falling to the run-happy Dragons.
Brunswick led 32-12 at the half and finished with 576 yards of total offense in the Cony win. Yes, Lucas threw for 444 yards and six touchdowns that night, including a superb 21-of-25 performance in the second half (58 passing attempts in all), and Brunswick followed that up with a rather shaky defensive first half of defense in an eventual 47-26 win over Skowhegan the next week, but the defense has done enough to allow Brunswick’s offense to get the ball and churn out big yards and time-consuming drives.
“Our linebackers are all capable guys, big, strong and athletic,” said Cooper. “They’ll need to bat a few balls down, make some plays in the run game and discourage receivers from coming in their area of coverage. They’ll have to make a few big plays defensively for us to get some stops.”
The defense is led by middle linebacker Duffy, who on most nights, is the team’s leading tackler.
“My job as a middle linebacker is to make tackles, and I do my best,” said Duffy, who, in typical Brunswick fashion, credited his teammates. “Everybody does their job, and that opens up areas for me to make plays.”
One advantage Duffy has is playing alongside longtime friends and teammates McCue and Bandouveres.
“Lucas and I have played together since fourth grade in the BAYFL (Brunswick Area Youth Football League), and Alex was one year behind us and started playing on our team in middle school, so we have been together for a long time,” said Duffy. “It is an advantage having played alongside these guys for so long. You get to know each other’s habits, and what to look out for. We are a family, not just teammates. We know what each other are going to do.”
In Friday’s win over Skowhegan, Dodson came up with two big fumble recoveries, and the Dragons turned both of those miscues into points to pull away from the feisty Indians. Dodson feels his squad needs to force Cony into the same type of mistakes tonight.
“Those turnovers against Skowhegan changed the momentum and turned things to our favor. It gave us chances to score. We need to cause turnovers on Friday and then put some points on the board,” said Dodson, who is still considered the “new guy” by his fellow linebackers, having played with Duffy and McCue for four years in high school.
“Nick has been a monster and a nice addition to the family,” said Duffy.
“Playing with these guys has been fun,” added Dodson.
Bandouveres feels a modest change to the Brunswick defensive scheme has helped the Dragons find more consistency.
“We just felt that we needed to be tougher, a harder defense to play against, and we have done that,” said Bandouveres, who often delivers punishing hits to those who dare come to his side of the field.
“Each of our four linebackers have had some fantastic moments throughout the season,” said Cooper. “There have been many games where Jacob Duffy has been the best player on the field, and I could say the same thing about Dodson with his performance last week … man was he good.
“Each player on my team has had moments of fantastic jawdropping play. I’m pretty darn proud of them all. Win or lose, we know we’ve given it our best shot and we’ll walk off the field proudly. They have really, really worked tirelessly to excel this year.”
The linebackers don’t leave the field much, with offensive linemen Dodson and Duffy blocking for running back speedster McCue and the punishing Bandouveres.
In the win over Cony, Bandouveres and McCue both rushed for over 150 yards, with Bandouveres scoring five TDs and McCue two, including a 17-yard pass play from quarterback Brady Larson that gave the Dragons the lead for good early in a 26-point second quarter.
“Alex just wears down defenses with his runs, and is a punishing runner and tough to tackle, which fires us up when he runs someone over,” said Dodson of Bandouveres. “When we give Lucas a hole, he finds it and is gone.”
Cony-Brunswick rivalry
Cony has put up big offensive numbers this year, including 383 points in the team’s nine games (42.5 per game). Duffy feels his team needs to be physical on both sides of the ball.
“We have to execute, make our blocks on offense and win the pain game,” said Duffy. “We feel that if we hit hard and make some big stops, we can throw Cony off and give us the advantage.”
There is certainly some recent history in the rivalry with Cony. The Rams knocked the Dragons out of the postseason last year with a 21-20 Eastern A semifinal win at Augusta, and the Dragons were sloppy in a 34-7 regular season loss at Brunswick last season. Since 2010, Cony holds a 3-2 edge in the series. Brunswick easily handled the Rams in two prior playoff matchups, winning 47-20 in 2009 (quarterfinals) and 42-14 (quarters) in 2003, the last time the Dragons won a regional final to advance to the state game.
That year, Brunswick went on the road for the regional final, defeating Bangor, 14-12. The Dragons fell to Deering in the Class A title game, 28-0.
“Cony has a stable of fast and skilled receivers and a Division One quarterback throwing behind a big line that protects him well,” said Cooper. “They make you defend the entire field and find ways of getting favorable matchups. For us to slow them down, we have to obviously cover better and do some things to cause some discomfort. It would be nice to get a few turnovers, a strong gust of wind from time to time and some fog from the bay to help us out. They are certainly a handful. Not sure if I’ve seen such an explosive offensive team in my lifetime.”
With Brunswick a running team, the challenge is trying to mimic what Cony does in practice.
“It is difficult to prepare for a spread team because we just don’t have the personnel for that,” said Duffy. “We like to pound away, win the time of possession game and control the line of scrimmage, where Cony is always looking for that quick strike in the air. It is a challenge.”
“Playing Skowhegan last week, I think that gives us an advantage in playing against a team that spreads the field and throws the ball a lot,” said McCue after watching Skowhegan quarterback Adam Clukey throw for over 360 yards last week. “It seems like every week this season, we have been preparing for this type of offense. Ben Lucas is good, but we will see how well he does under pressure.”
And, playing at home!
“It will be great playing in front of our fans on our field,” said Bandouveres. “We expect to go out there, win and go to Orono for the state game next week.”
“This is our 15th week of football,” said Cooper. “The boys have worked hard to be here and they expect to have another week of practice and another team to prepare for. This team has faith and character, and I believe they can get it done.”
At the gate
Fans attending tonight’s game will be charged $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.
Only Maine Principals’ Association passes and MIAAA passes will be accepted at the gate. Conference passes and season passes may no longer be used.
For more information, contact Brunswick athletic director Jeff Ramich at 319-1920.
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