SACO — If last weekend’s action from around the state demonstrated anything, it’s that special teams do matter in high school football, enough to make or break a team’s entire season and decide who gets to move on to playing for a state title, and who’s going home distraught over what might have been.

Three of the seven regional championship games last Saturday were decided by a single point, with blocked extra points deciding both the Eastern Class A and Western Class B games while a made point after was the difference in the Western Class D contest.

Even in Thornton Academy’s win against Bonny Eagle in the Western Class A final, a game decided by 16 points, the kicking game played a factor. After scoring to edge to within 7-6 in the second quarter, the Scots missed the point after wide left, a play that Golden Trojans head coach Kevin Kezal said kept the momentum with his team and “gave us a lift.”

Then with 31 seconds remaining in the second quarter, a short punt set Thornton up with good field position. Two long passes later, the Trojans had the ball at the Scots’ 16 with five seconds left in the half.

With the wind on his side, Kezal decided to send kicker Cam Cadorette out for his first field goal attempt of the season. Cadorette rewarded his coach’s faith by splitting the uprights with plenty to spare on the 33-yard kick, giving Thornton a 17-6 lead and a major boost heading into the locker room.

“I was warming up on the sidelines, and in the back of mind it was like maybe we’ll try a field goal,” Cadorette said. “But we hadn’t done it all season, so I wasn’t sure. When they called for the field goal, I was really running off of adrenaline. I wasn’t worried at all, I just really wanted to do it, so that made it all the easier.”

It was the kind of execution that builds confidence in a kicker for a coach, especially heading into the cold weather and swirling winds that are standard playing conditions in late November at Fitzpatrick Stadium, where Thornton will take on Windham for the Class A state championship at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“If the situation warrants it, we’ll certainly rely on him to do that again,” Thornton coach Kevin Kezal said. “That was a great kick last week and really kind of changed the complexion of that game.”

A sophomore, Cadorette started playing football in eighth grade, when he switched over from soccer with no intention of becoming a kicker. But after being encouraged to try it he fell in love with the position, taking over the starting spot for Trojans this season, during which he’s converted 53 of 65 extra point chances, with just one of those being blocked.

“Ever since I started it’s been working really well,” Cadorette said. “I really enjoy it.”

Windham is no slouch when it comes to the kicking game, either. The Eagles feature perhaps the top kicking weapon in the state in senior Josh Dugas, who is a perfect 9 of 9 on field goal attempts and 29 of 31 on extra points this season.

Last Saturday in a nip-and-tuck Eastern A title game against Cheverus, Dugas was the difference, kicking a pair of 29-yard field goals ”“ the second on a pressure-packed kick with 5:24 remaining ”“ as Windham came back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to send the game into overtime at 14-14.

Then in the first extra period, Dugas coolly slotted through his kick after Dylan Koza’s 10-yard TD run. Cheverus also scored on its turn with the ball, but Windham’s Tanner Laberge rushed off the edge and blocked Patrick Mourmouras’s point after attempt, dramatically sending the Eagles to their first state title game appearance since 2009.

“Watching film on him, he’s an excellent kicker,” Cadorette said of Dugas. “His kickoffs are nice and he’s really clutch as you saw last week.”

“He’s a dynamite kicker,” Kezal added of Dugas.

Special teams playing a major role in the fate of Gold Balls is no new phenomenon, of course, and the past two Class A state championship games have seen special teams play more than just a supporting role.

In 2012, Thornton’s opening kickoff was returned 89 yards by an untouched Jake Doolan to give Lawrence a lead right out of the gates; oddly enough, when the same teams had met in the 1988 state title game, the Bulldogs had also returned the opening kickoff for a TD and an early lead.

Lawrence was also able to take a 17-16 lead into the break thanks to a 36-yard field goal by Chad Martin with 2.8 seconds left in the first half, but the Trojans were able to come out on top 37-23 thanks to big special teams plays of their own, including a blocked punt that resulted in a safety and a 48-yard Andrew Libby punt return for a touchdown.

“We always joke about that. We gave them seven, but we scored nine,” Kezal said. “It’s a huge part of the game. Especially in a game like Saturday when both teams have good skill kids, you’ve to execute right and not give them anything.”

Much like this past Saturday, the kicking game also cost Cheverus in last year’s state final, this time with Bonny Eagle taking advantage.

In a near-identical replay of the year before, the Scots were able to take a lead into halftime thanks to a 33-yard boot by Isaiah Reynolds on the last play of the half that put his team up 17-14.

The Stags would go on to retake the lead 28-24 and had a chance to extend it seven midway through the fourth quarter, but Mourmouras’s 31-yard field goal attempt into the wind went wide left.

A few minutes later Cheverus had a chance to pin the Scots deep with a punt, but Joe Fitzpatrick’s kick went just 10 yards to set Bonny Eagle up with reasonably good field position at its own 18. All these kicking errors as the Scots drove the 82 yards for the winning touchdown, a case of all the small things adding up to one big advantage.

With that kind of recent history in mind, and with Saturday’s game another between two seemingly evenly-matched teams, the question of who’s holding the trophy at the end could all come down to which team executes the little things like kick returns, punts and extra points just a bit better.

“A lot of people don’t really see kicking or special teams as a huge deal in the game, but a lot of it impacts the game tremendously,” Cadorette said. “You saw that last week. People think it’s something that should come easily, but when it comes down to it, it’s difficult and there’s a lot of pressure on you because it could decide the game.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected].