DOVER-FOXCROFT — The loss was a tough one for the Winthrop football team. What it spawned, though, has meant the world to Joel Stoneton.

In November 2008, Stoneton’s Ramblers lost 21-14 against John Bapst in the Class C state championship game. Eight months later, he would meet up with his counterpart from that game, Dan O’Connell, when both were on the coaching staffs at the Lobster Bowl.

“I think one night I joked to him, ‘Can I have my Gold Ball?’” Stoneton recalled. “We were friends before, and we had talked to each other leading up to that state championship game, but I think that’s where the friendship really took off. … It’s great that we’re still doing it.”

As state championship coaches, athletic directors and representatives of Class D programs, Stoneton and O’Connell have followed similar trajectories in the nearly two decades since. Now, the Lobster Bowl has brought them together again as head coaches in Saturday’s game at Lewiston High’s Don Roux Field.

The 2008 Class C final pitted Winthrop, undefeated at 11-0, against John Bapst, which was 10-1 and seeking its first state championship in 32 years. Even with star running back Riley Cobb missing for what Stoneton called “disciplinary reasons,” the Ramblers, who had allowed 3.9 points per game, were considered favorites.

On the field, though, the game couldn’t have been much more even. It was tied 0-0 after the first quarter, 7-7 at halftime and 14-14 through three quarters before an 8-yard run by Chase Huckestein in the fourth quarter gave John Bapst the win.

“We were picked to go in there and blow them out, and they beat us,” Stoneton said. “That was not only humbling, but it was also impressive with how Dan did it with such class and was a role model for his kids. That’s something we still try to (emulate) today, to show each other that it’s bigger than football.”

The Lobster Bowl, of course, is the epitome of a sporting event that’s bigger than the game. Players and cheerleaders must raise a minimum of $500 for Shriners Hospitals for Children. As of Tuesday, participants had raised roughly $310,000, setting a record.

O’Connell has been the head coach at John Bapst since 2003 and athletic director since 2017. Stoneton was Winthrop’s head coach from 2004-13, became defensive coordinator in 2014 upon taking the school’s AD position, then returned to the head-coaching post in 2024. He remains athletic director.

The coaches have also gotten to know each other extensively through the Maine Principals’ Association. Both have spent time on the MPA Football Committee, to which O’Connell is currently a liaison. Both coaches are also members of the 11-person Classification Committee.

“One of the biggest ways we’ve gotten to know each other is that we’ve both been athletic directors and football coaches at the same time,” O’Connell said. “Serving on those committees together, we’ve spent a lot of time together that way. “We’ve also both fought hard to protect small-school football.”

This past season, everything came full-circle for the duo. Stoneton’s Winthrop team claimed its first state title in a quarter-century as it went 11-0, and defeated Winslow in the Class D final. John Bapst went 9-1 and was the runner-up in Class D North, the Crusaders’ best finish since 2012.

The timing, then, is perfect for Stoneton’s return to the game. Although O’Connell has been part of the East’s coaching staff every year since 2008 (head coach in 2009, 2019, 2022 and 2024), it’s Stoneton’s first Lobster Bowl since he was head coach of the West team in 2012.

“It really is something that brings people together, and if that’s not the best thing about coaching other than the kids, I don’t know what is,” O’Connell said. “Being able to be in touch because of the Lobster Bowl, we’ve had conversations that are so much more far-reaching than just football, and that’s what’s made us friends,” 

Another perfect bit of timing? Perhaps the fact that this year’s senior class at the Lobster Bowl is a throwback to that 2008 battle at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Many of the players who will take the field Saturday, such as Winthrop’s Jake Feith, were born in 2008.

“That’s very cool,” said Feith, a linebacker for the West. “For someone like me, it’s really eye-opening (to see them still coaching after all the years). It really shows how far I can take the sport past college.”