The Medomak Valley football team dominated Nokomis during a 36-6 rout in a Class C North semifinal match on Saturday, Nov. 9 in Waldoboro. The number two seed Panthers played better offense, defense and special teams than the three seed Warriors and also benefitted from Nokomis turnovers while earning a trip to the regional championship game for the third year in a row.
Medomak Valley will seek to avenge a regular season loss to the Hermon Hawks when they square off for the Class C North title on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 2:30 P.M. at Hampden Academy in Hampden. Number one seed Hermon, who defeated Medomak Valley 14-8 during the opening week of the season, dispatched four seed Oceanside 32-6 in the other regional semifinal game on Friday, Nov. 8 to set up the rematch.
Both Nokomis and Medomak Valley featured running plays almost exclusively in their semifinal match, as neither team attempted many passes in large part due to the stiff wind blowing throughout the game that made passing unpredictable. Medomak Valley’s offensive line led the way against Nokomis by consistently clearing space for the Panthers running backs including Jaydiin Ruiz who ran for 200 yards on 23 carries. Ruiz was nearly unstoppable as he scored four touchdowns on runs of 29 yards, 20 yards, 23 yards and 16 yards.
Walker Simmons accounted for the other Panthers touchdown on a three yard ramble, and he also chipped in by running in a two-point conversion. Porter Gahagan ran in a two-point conversion, and Gabe Lash dove to catch a pass from Wyatt Simmons in the back of the end zone for the other two-point conversion in the game.
