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Football may be relatively new, but Christian Lavalle, Cameron Collins, Nick Moulton, Anthony Moulton and Peter Johnson love their team.

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With a rivalry comes respect, and Ryan Cormier of Mountain Valley, left, and Sean Meagher of Cape Elizabeth quickly showed it after the game.

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Emily Child, left, and Shawnee Akers of Mountain Valley made the trek from Rumford to watch their school take on Cape Elizabeth last week.

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Pauline Wilson of Rumford has been a strong booster of Mountain Valley football for years, marked by the cowbell that echoes through the crowd.

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While the players meet after the game, Dan Sites of Lone Wolf Documentary Group gathers sound while another crew member does the filming at Hannaford Field in Cape Elizabeth.

CAPE ELIZABETH — Devon Freitas arrived at Hannaford Field five hours before kickoff and soon was joined by Tucker Emerson. They are recent graduates of Cape Elizabeth High, but each made a special trip from college -- Freitas from Bentley and Emerson from Ohio State -- to watch a high school football game.

"One of the criticisms of our program," Freitas said while leaning against a metal fence around the artificial turf field built since he and Emerson were captains last fall, "is we're young. We're not established. We hear we're arrogant, that we haven't accomplished anything.

"It's always been a chip on our shoulder."

Of course, always is a relative term when the subject is Cape Elizabeth football. Not until 2003 did it receive sanctioning from the Maine Principals' Association. After two seasons in Class C, the Capers moved to Class B, where the regional seat of power is Rumford, home to Mountain Valley.

Sprung from the consolidation of Rumford and Mexico school districts in 1989, Mountain Valley never has suffered a losing season. The Falcons have won five regional and two state titles, and entering the regular-season finale against Cape Elizabeth had a 47-5 record since the Capers came on the scene.

THE GAME FOR ALL TO SEE

Until Friday, the biggest crowd for a Cape Elizabeth game had been about 1,200 against Wells three weeks earlier.

But all week, Cape Elizabeth Athletic Director Keith Weatherbie had been fielding calls about advance ticket sales, about sending a thousand tickets for Mountain Valley fans who arrived by the busload.

"People who had never, ever been to a football game were calling up for tickets," Weatherbie said. "Rumors were going around for weeks. But there were no advance ticket sales."

Not only would this be a game between 8-0 teams, it involved teams who agreed to be filmed and interviewed for a documentary produced by the father of two Cape Elizabeth players.

Kirk Wolfinger, co-founder with his wife of Lone Wolf Documentary Group, normally focuses on subjects such as the Mayflower, the Titanic, Pocahontas, the Salem witch trial or the space program. Last fall he filmed Cape Elizabeth football with the intention of producing something for the end-of-season banquet.

"It was my way of making a donation to the team," he said. "I was hoping they could sell a few of them to raise money for the new field."

What changed his mind was walking into the Hosmer Field Athletic Complex in Rumford. Seeing all the passion of high school football where it remained the biggest show in town, Wolfinger realized he had the makings of a movie.

He called it "Rivals" and as he does for each film project, posted a trailer on YouTube.

He included interviews with players and coaches from both schools, with scenes from each town and action from last fall's 18-6 Mountain Valley victory that included two violent tackles. The first came courtesy of Cape Elizabeth senior Adam Danielson on a since-graduated Mountain Valley player. The second -- admittedly in response -- was delivered by Mountain Valley tackle Thaddeus Bennett, another graduate, on Cape Elizabeth quarterback Jim Bump.

Immediately after Bennett and two buddies are seen chuckling over the hit, Bump is shown alone and half in shadow against a tree, revealing the extent of the hit's damage: a broken collarbone.

When the teams met again in the Western Maine final a few weeks later, Mountain Valley won 47-6 against a team missing not only Bump but five defensive starters suspended for violating school rules.

"It would be the sweetest revenge," Bump tells the camera, "to absolutely bury them."

Fast forward to last Friday.

"There's been a lot of hype about the documentary," said Jodie Grant, whose son, Kenny, is a junior tackle for Mountain Valley. "Some people think...