When thunder and lightning slated for Friday night threatened an exhibition football game between Brewer High and Foxcroft Academy at Brewer’s Doyle Field, Brewer High School Athletic Director David Utterback came up with a clever solution.
“He asked me if we could play in the field house,” said Foxcroft Academy Athletic Director Jackie Tourtelotte, referring to the new 81,000-square-foot Jim Robinson Field House in Dover-Foxcroft that opened earlier this month.
And that’s just what they did.
Football being played inside in Maine is a rarity. The game was converted from an exhibition game to a controlled scrimmage to accommodate the smaller field size, which will typically be used for soccer and field hockey games.
Utterback and Tourtelotte discussed several options, including moving the time up to try to escape the storms or playing on Saturday.
Brewer coach Scott Flagg and Foxcroft coach Danny White didn’t want to play on Saturday because it would disrupt their regular weekly routines, and it was unclear if any officials would be available.
The controlled scrimmage involved each team getting the ball at the 40-yard line and trying to march the ball down the field. If they were stopped, the other team took control of the ball and began a drive at the 40.
Play was stopped immediately if there was an interception or a fumble recovery. There was no special teams play.
There are boundary lines and they had a chain gang on hand to measure out the 10 yards for a first down. There were also officials.
“The field isn’t set up for a football game. The surface is big enough but not from a spectator standpoint. So we used half a field,” White said.
There was no seating, but spectators could bring chairs or stand.
Both coaches wanted their teams to get some live action against another opponent prior to their openers.
“To be able to play at their indoor facility was pretty awesome,” Flagg said.
Brewer will open against Bangor next Friday night at Cameron Stadium in Bangor. Foxcroft Academy will travel to take on Winthrop-Monmouth-Hall-Dale in a rematch of last year’s state Class D championship game, which was won by Foxcroft Academy 19-16.
Each had a controlled scrimmage last week as Brewer played Hampden Academy and Foxcroft Academy played Old Town.
