MADISON — Nick White enjoyed his night here — both during the game and minutes after the scoreboard had faded to black.
The senior on the Freeport football team was one of the key players Friday night, making big plays at both running back and wide receiver in a 63-12 victory over Madison/Carrabec. Another big moment for White might have come after the game, when he received a homecoming proposal from one of the Freeport cheerleaders.
“It was a pretty good night,” White said. “It was a long bus ride up here, and I was worried about coming out flat, but we were focused and had a lot of energy offensively and defensively. We really showed out tonight.”
It certainly was an outstanding evening all around for Freeport, which put forth a dominant showing at Rudman Field. The Falcons made sure a potential trap game ahead of two major clashes with Class C teams was anything but as they scored touchdowns on each of their seven first-half possessions en route to a lopsided victory.
On the opening drive, Aidan Heath found Max Peters for a score on a 15-yard screen pass to give Freeport (2-0) a 7-0 lead just 1:10 into the game. The Falcons then got a pair of 8-yard touchdown runs from White and Jordan Knighton following Madison/Carrabec turnovers to take a 19-0 lead into the second quarter.
White added two more scores on Freeport’s next two drives, first on a 37-yard scamper down the sidelines and again on a 59-yard reception from Heath. After tackling the Madison/Carrabec punter for a safety on the ensuing drives, touchdown runs from Colby Bourgoin (19 yards) and Knighton (36) put the Falcons up 49-0 at the break.
Madison quarterback Quinn Cornforth fumbles the ball on the option against Freeport during a football game Friday in Madison. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
“We have a lot of playmakers, and when we’re clicking like we were tonight, it’s special to watch,” said Freeport head coach Paul St. Pierre. “It’s great to know we have so much athletic ability when we need it and that they’re always working so hard to get better.”
Bourgoin scored from 5 yards out with 6:32 left in the third quarter to make it 57-0 before Xavier Estes put Madison/Carrabec (1-1) on the board with a 15-yard run to begin the fourth. Freeport responded with a 47-yard touchdown run from Evan Mahaney with 8:51 to go before Estes threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Cornforth in the final seconds.
Knighton ran for 115 yards on 10 carries for Freeport, which also got 71 rushing yards on five carries and 59 receiving yards on two catches from White. Heath was 4 of 6 passing for 80 yards for the Falcons, who got an interception from David Ulrickson on defense and registered 5 1/2 sacks as a team.
Madison/Carrabec got 56 yards passing from starting quarterback Quinn Cornforth in the first half and 55 from backup Xavier Estes in the second. Cornforth left the game at halftime with an illness for the Bulldogs, who were down three starters as a result of illnesses and lost two more to the sickness bug during the game.
“There’s a bit of a bug that’s been going around the school, but that’s not an excuse for us by any means,” said Madison/Carrabec head coach Danny Moreshead. “We just didn’t do our assignments, and that’s something that we had prepped all week. I guess we didn’t keep prepping it.”
Madison blocks the field goal attempt by Freeport during a football game Friday in Madison. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
It was also possible, Moreshead acknowledged, that Madison/Carrabec was the victim of the letdown that often comes when a team enters the game riding an emotional high. The Bulldogs entered the game fresh off a 16-14 Week 1 win over Hampden Academy, the team’s first victory since 2019 following a winless campaign last season.
For Freeport, Friday’s game came ahead of two major clashes with top Class C teams: a showdown with Wells next week and a battle with Medomak Valley in Week 4. Yet as their play on the field showed, the Falcons were clearly not looking ahead as they rolled into Madison for this Class D showdown Friday night.
“I did remind them, ‘Guys, this is absolutely a trap game for us,’” St. Pierre said. “It was set up for that with the games we have coming up, but we were laser-focused all week in practice, and we came out and executed. We needed something to build on, and this gives us that as we go back to practice next week.”
There were, as White and St. Pierre pointed out, still some mistakes made — some defensive lapses that lead to big pass plays for Madison/Carrabec and a few miscommunications offensively, just to name a few. Those miscues didn’t prevent Freeport from rolling this time, but the Falcons know that margin for error won’t be there the next two weeks.
“We’re going to celebrate tonight, but (Saturday), we’re going to go right back, start watching film and get ready for these two big games going up,” White said. “It was a team effort, but we know we still have work to do.”
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