LINCOLN, Maine — Senior quarterback Matthew Stewart passed for 155 yards and two touchdowns Friday night as the Bucksport Golden Bucks fought off Mattanawcook Academy 21-13 in an LTC Class C football matchup at Curry Field.
The win improves coach Joel Sankey’s Golden Bucks to 5-1 on the season, while Mattanawcook dips to 3-3 after dropping its homecoming game.
Stewart completed 11 of 18 passes, including touchdown strikes of 15 and 45 yards to Dylan Soper — one in the final 72 seconds of the first half and the second two minutes into the third quarter.
That passing attack was complemented by 73 tough rushing yards from Jack Cyr and a Bucksport defense that recorded five quarterback sacks and limited the Lynx to 159 yards of total offense.
Holden Kimball led Mattanawcook offensively with 51 yards on 14 carries while Garret Sutherland added 40 rushing yards.
Bucksport extended a 14-7 halftime lead with a five-play, 60-yard march to open the third quarter.
Most of that foray came on its final play, as Stewart saw Soper streaking down the left sideline and passed the ball to him in stride behind the defense for the score.
Carter DeRedin’s extra-point kick made it 21-7 with 10 minutes left in the period.
Mattanawcook answered immediately with a 62-yard drive, with a 29-yard pass from Carter Ward to Gunner Maxwell on fourth-and-5 advancing the ball to the Bucksport 1 before Kimball powered into the end zone on the next play to close the gap to 21-13.
A 15-yard slant pass for a touchdown from Stewart to Soper with 1:12 left in the second quarter gave Bucksport its 14-7 halftime lead.
The pass capped off an eight-play, 60-yard scoring march that answered Mattanawcook’s lone score of the half, a 10-yard-run by Scott Jipson with 5:42 remaining before intermission.
Bucksport’s go-ahead touchdown drive was aided by an 18-yard Stewart-to-Soper connection on third-and-19 from the MA 46, followed by a 7-yard run by Cyr good for a first down at the 21.
Three Cyr runs left Bucksport with a fourth-and-4 from the 15, when Stewart looked right and found Soper cutting in front of a defender with a pass in stride to give the Golden Bucks a 12-7 lead.
Stewart then passed to Cyr in the left front of the end zone for the two-point conversion to extend the lead to seven points.
MA threatened twice in the first quarter only to come up empty. The Lynx first marched inside the Bucksport 10-yard line before DeRedin forced an MA fumble and the Golden Bucks recovered.
The MA defense then forced Bucksport to punt and the Lynx subsequently drove to the Bucks’ 30 before Cyr and Zach Chapman stopped Holden Kimball 2 yards short of a first down on fourth-and-5.
Bucksport drove 73 yards in nine plays to take a 6-0 lead on an 8-yard run by Cyr 13 seconds into the second quarter. The Bucks were aided by a pair of 15-yard personal foul penalties assessed against MA.
Mattanawcook took possession at the Bucksport 25 midway through the second quarter after the Golden Bucks mishandled a punt snap.
This time the Lynx drove the distance, with a pair of 8-yard runs by Garrett Sutherland setting up Jipson’s scoring run up the middle.
Dustin Smith, fresh from helping the MA boys soccer team score a 4-0 victory at Penquis Valley of Milo earlier in the day, kicked the extra point to give the Lynx a 7-6 lead.
