FOOTBALL

Raiders 28, Wells 26: “We just hung in there and played tough.”

That’s how Fryeburg Academy football coach David Turner summed up his team’s upset victory at Wells Friday night.

Coming off two disappointing losses, the Raiders faced a 2-0 Warrior team on their home turf, but showed little in terms of intimidation.

FA scored first and led the entire first half — up 14-6 at intermission.

“We knew we would have to weather the storm to start the second half,” Coach Turner said.

Wells roared ahead by scoring on their first two possessions of the second half to take a 20-14 lead. Instead of panicking, the Raiders struck right back. Freshman Jared Chisari pumped new life into the Raiders when he returned the ensuing kickoff for a score. But…the TD was erased due to a penalty. Fryeburg overcame the disappointment and yellow flag by scoring on that possession to tie the game.

Wells scored again in the third quarter on a 40-yard pass play, but missed the extra point to lead 26-20 late in third.

Fryeburg responded by taking the ensuing possession and drove for a score as Chisari broke free on a 29 yard run. Quarterback Ryan Gullikson hooked up with Cody Gullikson for the two-point conversion for the lead.

The Raider defense stood tall, and forced Wells to punt the ball away with 4:50 left to go. Again, FA drove into Wells territory and forced the Warriors to use up their timeouts. FA had a chance to ice the game, but failed to convert on a fourth down, one yard to go situation at the W-30.

With two minutes on the game clock, the Warriors drove into FA territory. Facing a critical third down, 15 yards to go call, Wells saw their comeback hopes dashed when Cody Gullikson intercepted a pass at the FA-20. Smartly, Gullikson took a knee, ending a thrilling finish for the Raiders (1-2).

Wells had 4 turnovers on the night while, FA had 3.

“Our defensive front seven played really well. We shut them down in the fourth quarter,” Coach Turner said.

QB Ryan Gullikson threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score.

“This team has embraced the idea of playing for 48 minutes. I hope it continues,” Coach Turner said. “(We face an) extremely difficult test versus Yarmouth this week.”

Up next: Yarmouth (3-0) defeated Poland last week 49-0. Game time Saturday at the Academy is 1:30 p.m.

Heather Howard

FIELD HOCKEY

Raiders 9, Wells 1:  Nicole Thurston had three goals and three assists as the Raiders (4-1) rolled past the Warriors (0-5) last Thursday at the Academy. Janelle Wiesemann added three goals for FA while Taylor Kruger had a goal and an assist, and Jade Fox also scored. Bridget Fahey made a pair of saves for the Raiders. Mary Hebden stopped 12 shots for Wells.

Yarmouth 3, Raiders 2: Alexis Charles scored for the Raiders in the first half before Yarmouth (6-0) scored twice in the second. Nicole Thurston pulled Fryeburg within 3-2 with 1:36 left.

Nicole Thurston

Bridget Fahey had eight saves for Fryeburg.

Heal Watch: The Raiders (6-2) are ranked fourth  in the Heal Ratings, as of Wednesday.

Up next: The Raiders host Lake Region this Friday at 3:30 p.m.

GOLF

Short week for the Raiders. Their match with Lake region was cancelled due to a conflict. Fryeburg played two away matches against Freeport and Yarmouth.

Raiders 7, Freeport 0: The course was short in yardage, but very demanding and tricky. Players had to be precise and none of the Raiders had seen the course, so they were little frustrated with their scores.

“For being on the road, we actually had a good road score of 173 for the team total,” Coach Chris Dutton said.

Jordan Lowe and Tyler Worcester led the way getting wins by both shooting 41. Evans Butters, a junior, participated in his first match experience and started with a impressive 42. Addison Schwartz, Keegan Jones and Chris Bergquist all got victories.

Raiders 5, Yarmouth 2: Jordan and Tyler got FA on the board quickly with two wins shooting a 41 and 39 respectively.

“Knowing that in two of our matches we were behind, it looked like the match was riding on our #3 and #4 men — Addison and Keegan. Keegan had a slight lead after the fourth hole and clung on for an important win by one stroke,” Coach Dutton said. “Addison fell behind early in his match but was able to grind and grind and battle to also pull out a win by one stroke ­— winning it on the final hole, securing a 5 to 2 victory for the team.”

Yarmouth will be a threat come a few weeks from now at the team qualifier for States, Coach Dutton said. “So, it was satisfying to beat them on their home course. It also was good to play away from home as it will get us prepared for the qualifier.”

Raiders will play three matches this week — at Gray which is playing very well, the top team Cape Elizabeth and then home against Poland.

“This will be a good test for our depth as we will be short a starter and will need to juggle the lineup some,” Coach Dutton said. “Things are still progressing well toward qualifiers, as we seem anxious about it. We just need to take it one day at a time and each player just needs to control what they can control and be in a good frame of mind leading up to it.”

The Raiders now stand at 5-0.

Team record is at 5 and 0 at the moment

GIRLS’ SOCCER

Raiders 3, NYA 0: Esme Hernandez, Julia Quinn and Kaylin Delaney each scored as the Raiders knocked off North Yarmouth Academy.

Raiders 1, Poland 0: Although the Raiders dominated play by out shooting the Knights 28-5, only Esme Hernandez could beat the netminder, converting on a deep cross as the Raiders improved to 3-2.

Makayla Cooper stopped five shots for Fryeburg, and recorded her second shutout.

Up next: The Raiders host Wells Saturday at 11 a.m. and Gray-NG on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

Ben Darling

BOYS’ SOCCER

Raiders 3, NYA 1: Jordan Kruguer had a goal and an assist to pace the Raiders (2-2) over North Yarmouth Academy (3-1) at Fryeburg.

Kruguer set up Oscar Flecha with the first goal for the Raiders, then a second goal off a Pablo Laca feed. The Raiders made it 3-1 on a goal by Gunnar Gurnis, assisted by  Nick Landano.

Raiders 2, Poland 2: Fryeburg (2-2-1) took a 2-0 lead in the first half as Pablo Lacia put in the first goal off Jordan Kruguer’s corner kick in the eighth minute, and Kruguer converted a penalty kick midway through the half.

Poland rallied in the second half to tie the game. Teddy Antelj and Yukon King split time in goal for Fryeburg, combining for four saves.

Heal Watch: The Raiders are ranked #9th in the Heal Ratings, as of Wednesday.

Up next: The Raiders host Wells at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, and travel to Gray-NG on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game.

CROSS COUNTRY

At Gray-NG, the packs were lead by Cartys.

Patrick Carty won the boys’ race inn 16:55 while Emily Carty edged out teammate Anna Lastra for race honors with a time of 19:28.

The FA boys fell four points shy of first place, captured by the host Patriots 34-38. Poland and North Yarmouth Academy followed.

Raider finishers were:

3. Ryan Hewes, 18:08
4. Alfie Walker, 18:43
5. Christian Bedell, 18:45
6. Seth Johnston, 21:56
7. Reed Wales, 23:26
8. Sam Paulding, 23:27
9. Ben Caffrey, 24:02
10. Connor Moody, 24:13

On the girls’ side, the Raiders won the meet with 25 points, well ahead of Gray-NG (54), NYA (66) and Poland (84).

Raider finishers were:

2. Anna Lastra, 19:39
3. Irina Norkin, 22:31
4. Emily Grzyb, 23:02
5. Ella Forbes, 24:22
6. Olivia Thompson, 24:47
7. Emmajo Armington, 25:04
8. Emily McDermith, 25:44

Up next: The Raiders will attend the Manchester Relays this Saturday.