SACO — The Thornton Academy football team completed its first undefeated regular season in 10 years, rolling to a 48-0 win over Sanford at Hill Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

“The kids did a great job. We grinded it out offensively,” said Thornton Coach Kevin Kezal. “We had to go into the wind in the second and third quarters, and I thought we did a nice job grinding it out those two quarters and getting first downs, moving the clock and not having to punt into the wind.

“Defensively we played pretty well, bent a couple times, and we made a couple plays to get those turnovers. Overall, great effort by our team.”

The Golden Trojans (8-0) opened the scoring with 9:42 left in the first quarter. After Athan Gikas intercepted a Sanford pass, the Trojans started at the Sanford 33. Three plays later, Ean Patry found the end zone from 1 yard out.

Sanford drove deep into Thornton territory late in the first quarter, but a pass by Xavier Levine on fourth down was intercepted by Jackson Cochrane.

Kobe Gaudette’s 1-yard keeper made it 13-0. Then, with 29 seconds left in the half, Gaudette tossed a 29-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Bracamonte for a 20-0 halftime lead.

Isaac Ofielu scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Arttu Tapola added his first varsity touchdown in the fourth quarter.

“We play a lot of guys and they’re all instrumental,” said Kezal. “Offensively, Isaac did a great job tonight. Our offensive line did a great job all season, and today we got another great game out of them. Defensively, (it was) just a great team effort.”

Thornton will get a bye in the first round of the Class A South playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

“We’re going to enjoy this until Monday, and then we’re back to 0-0,” said Kezal. “We have to put this behind us, but we’re going to enjoy this the next day and a half, then Monday we’ll get back to work.”

SOCCER

SOUTH PORTLAND 1, WESTBROOK 0: Cooper Mehlhorn tucked in a rebound with 9:21 remaining to give the fifth-seeded Red Riots (10-5) a win over the 12th-seeded Blue Blazes (3-11-1) in a Class A South prelim at South Portland.

South Portland will face fourth-seeded Cheverus in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

YORK 6, OAK HILL 1: The eighth-seeded Wildcats (8-6-1) built a 3-0 halftime lead and defeated the ninth-seeded Raiders (8-7) in a Class B South prelim in York.

Lucas LaBelle put York ahead about 12 minutes into the match. John Bychok and Alex Neilson scored later in the first half.

York advances to play at top-seeded Yarmouth (12-0-2) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

MT. VIEW 1, MEDOMAK VALLEY 0: Elijah Allen fired a shot just under the crossbar early in the second half, giving the third-seeded Mustangs (15-0) a win over the 14th-seeded Panthers (5-8-2) in a Class B North prelim in Thorndike.

Despite being marked by two defenders at the top of the 18-yard box, Allen settled the ball, turned toward the goal and ripped a shot that eluded the outstretched hands of Medomak keeper Aiden Starr (eight saves). The ball clipped the bottom of the crossbar and dropped just across the goal line.

 

This roundup was updated on Oct. 25 to correct that Thornton Academy’s last undefeated regular season in football was in 2008.