Every team’s got a neighborly rival, a nemesis from across the tracks that once, maybe twice a year stops by for a little smash-mouth.

Biddeford’s got TA, South Portland’s got Portland…and Scarborough. And Windham’s got Bonny Eagle, who put up a good fight in the first half of Friday night’s battle, both teams’ last of the regular season, but took a few too many punches in the later quarters.

The Eagles found the Scots’ weaknesses after the break – and exploited them, turning a 3-0 halftime lead into a 26-6 runaway victory on TDs by Kyle Houser, Zach Davis and Desmond Leslie, not to mention the kicking prowess of Josh Dugas.

“We felt defensively we could man up and really take away things they wanted to do,” said Windham head coach Matt Perkins. “We like how we matched up. We had a real good scouting, a good breakdown on them and what we thought they were going to try to do.”

Windham jumps to 7-1 on the year. The Eagles rank second in A East, just one slot behind mighty Cheverus – though, it’s worth remembering, when those two teams met back on Sept. 27, Windham emerged victorious, and handily so: The final score was 35-7.

Bonny Eagle slips to 5-3. The Scots also occupy second – in A West – lingering a spot back from Thornton, who are responsible for one of Bonny Eagle’s losses. The third belongs to South Portland.

Both defenses looked sharp to start the game. Save for a Dugas field goal, a 25-yarder on the Eagles’s first drive, neither team logged a point through the opening 24 minutes. Muddy conditions – inches of rain had fallen in the previous few days – made running difficult, and both squads feature their talented runners heavily. Windham held Scots QB Zach Dubiel, superb on the keeper, and resident freight train Matt Smith to mostly short gains, and Bonny Eagle in turn held Eagles runningbacks Kyle Houser and Griffin Jacobson to the same.

Not until after the break did either team – in this case, Windham – find a groove. They found it early, on their first drive, a long series that featured three long Houser runs, including the final push into the end zone on a 13-yarder. Dugas tacked on the PAT, and the Eagles grabbed a 10-0 lead.

They made it 16-0 just seconds later. A scant few snaps into the Scots’ follow-up possession, Davis emerged with the ball from a pileup of Bonny Eagle attackers and Windham defenders. Somehow, in the thick of things, he’d stripped it; he fought his way free of the scramble then charged across the 19 yards separating him from the Scots’ inner sanctum for another TD.

“We just had to do a better job of executing our blocks,” Perkins said of what he told his boys at halftime to help them break the game open. “Staying with them a little long, trusting what we were doing. We were coming off blocks a little too fast.”

Perkins said Davis’s TD, so hot on the heels of Houser’s, represented a turning point. “I think so. I think it was a big part of the game for sure, and it definitely drove a lot of excitement.” The Eagles clearly carried that head of steam forward.

Leslie notched his score, a one-yard QB keeper, late in the third, and Dugas added his second field goal early in the fourth for 26-0. Bonny Eagle had little chance to come back, but they had the grit to earn at least something before game’s end. That something capped a long drive the Scots began midway through the final quarter, a determined series of short Smith and Dubiel runs interspersed with a pair of Dubiel passes, one to Antonio Bruni for 12 yards and another to Smith for eight.

The effort carried Bonny Eagle all the way from their own 22 to Windham’s seven. From there, Dubiel threw right, to receiver Dillon Reynolds in the end zone. 26-6.

That would be, however, all she wrote. Not nearly enough time remained for the Scots to score again, barring bizarre circumstances, which didn’t materialize.

So they hadn’t scored for the win; they’d scored for themselves, and they’ll take that reminder of who they are – the reigning State Champs – into the postseason. As the two-seed, the Scots get a bye through the quarterfinals, but they’ll meet the winner of No. 3 South Portland and No. 6 Biddeford, who play this Friday, next weekend. Whereas the Scots have already skinned the Tigers once this year, they’ll want revenge on South Portland, if it’s the Riots who show up for the semis.

Windham gets a bye as well. The Eagles will face the winner of No. 3 Portland and No. 6 Deering next weekend. Portland, interestingly, is the only team to have beat Windham in the regular season. If that rematch transpires, it could be a doozy. The Bulldogs would enter it with a degree of self-assurance most teams who’ve faced the Eagles this year haven’t had the luxury of, whereas Windham will enter it hungry.

That’s it. Just hungry.

“We’ve got next week off,” Perkins said. “We’ll just see who’s on the horizon and try to get healthy.”

Besides recuperating in the coming days from the every-game aches and pains, the Eagles will also be rejoined when the semis roll around by standout runningback Dylan Koza, sidelined a few weeks ago with a shoulder injury. Koza was reportedly in good shape Friday night, but nevertheless sat out as a precautionary measure.

“We’ve got things we’ve got to work on and become better,” Perkins said simply.

Windham’s Griffin Jacobson cuts upfield on a run.The Eagles’ Kyle Houser took most of Windham’s runs in Friday night’s victory over visiting Bonny Eagle. Windham beat the Scots 26-6; Houser had a TD in the third.Windham senior Tanner Laberge lines up outside before the snap.The Scots’ Zach Dubiel doing what Dubiel does best: quarterbacking.The Scots, including Mason White (68), line up before a kickoff.Bonny Eagle’s Zach Dubiel lays heavy coverage on Windham receiver Eric Webb.Bonny Eagle defenders Parker Gammon (50), Nikk Pierce (52) and Dalton Sanborn (24) lumber to the line of scrimmage.The Eagles, including Matt Roy (13), huddle up post-game while waiting for their coaching staff to come and speak with them.