PITTSFIELD, Maine — The LTC championship game represented the 2014 high school football season in microcosm for Maine Central Institute’s Eric Hathaway.
The senior running back and nose guard missed several games due to injury midway through the schedule before returning in time for an exhibition game against Medomak Valley of Waldoboro that preceded the Huskies’ playoff opener.
Once back in action, Hathaway rushed for 137 yards and a touchdown and provided a considerable defensive presence as top-ranked MCI advanced with a 20-0 conference semifinal victory over Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.
But midway through the first quarter of Saturday night’s title clash with defending LTC champion Bucksport at Alumni Field, Hathaway was back on the sideline, this time with a right ankle injury.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, no, not again,’” said Hathaway after the undefeated Huskies scored a 21-7 victory over the Golden Bucks to earn a berth in Saturday’s 2:36 p.m. Class D state final in Portland against reigning state champion Oak Hill of Wales.
“I was glad the injury happened early on because I was able to give it some time, and just from the energy from all the fans and my teammates I got so jacked up I told the trainer to wrap my ankle up because I wanted to try it.”
Hathaway returned for the start of the second half and helped MCI score 21 unanswered points to improve its record to 10-0 and win its first Eastern Maine crown in 14 years.
Hathaway’s blocking out of the Huskies’ backfield helped teammate Jonathan Santiago rush for 110 yards and two touchdowns after intermission. He also caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Greg Vigue for the go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter.
And he helped clog up the middle defensively as MCI limited Bucksport to 51 total yards — including just 19 on the ground — during the second half.
“That was partly because [Hathaway] was so dominating in the middle of the line,” said Bucksport head coach Joel Sankey. “He took a lot of things away. When we tried to do our counters, he was in the backfield, so it made things difficult.”
Bucksport, which averaged 249 rushing yards per game during the regular season while averaging 7.5 yards per carry, mustered just 63 rushing yards on 2.5 yards per attempt against MCI.
“Our game plan was definitely to control the offensive and defensive lines,” Hathaway said. “We really needed to control that and get a push on both sides of the ball, and if we did that we knew the sky would be the limit for us.”
Hathaway’s return to the MCI offense after intermission coincided with the Huskies taking the kickoff and driving 77 yards on 12 consecutive rushing plays to forge a 7-7 tie on Santiago’s 4-yard scoring run less than three minutes into the third quarter.
Santiago, limited to 12 yards on 10 first-half carries, gained 49 yards on eight carries during that drive alone, including a 16-yard gain behind a Hathaway block to the Bucksport 23 on a third-and-one play.
“Eric’s a big, strong guy, so having him on the field immediately makes a difference,” said MCI junior quarterback Greg Vigue. “Some of those blocks that a smaller guy might not be able to hold he could, and it opened up the hole for Jon and he hit it hard.”
Hathaway added runs of 9 and 8 yards during the scoring drive, the latter gain coming on another third-down conversion that advanced the ball inside the Bucksport 10.
“Having Eric out there, having all of our team out there, was huge,” said MCI head coach Tom Bertrand. “But it’s a game of momentum and they had it in the first half and we decided we were going to come out in the second half and try to take it. We had the ball first, and fortunately we did.”
Hathaway sat out MCI’s next offensive series but returned to the backfield late in the third quarter and teamed with Vigue to put the Huskies ahead.
That came on a second-and-10 play from the Bucksport 30, when Hathaway went in motion from right to left before heading deep downfield. Vigue rolled in the same direction and lofted a pass to the end zone that Hathaway caught to give MCI a 13-7 lead with 10:51 left in the game.
“At halftime he assured us he was fine, that he was good to go and he was going to give it his all,” said Vigue. “We have that trust in each other that if we’re good to go we can count on each other and we don’t have to worry who’s doing what. Everyone’s going to do his job, and he held his own.”
