PORTLAND, Maine — Maine Central Institute’s bid for its first state football championship in 40 years fell victim to too many injuries at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Saturday — along with way too much Mace.
That’s Alex Mace, to be exact, a senior halfback who scored three touchdowns and amassed 327 all-purpose yards as Oak Hill of Wales defeated the Huskies of Pittsfield 41-21 for its second-straight Class D state crown.
Mace rushed for 233 yards on 23 carries, including an 81-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter to erase an early 7-0 deficit. He also caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dylan Therrien and returned a punt 57 yards as the 11-1 Raiders took charge with 27 straight points midway through the contest.
“We knew we could beat them around the outside,” said Mace. “They’re a good team up the middle, but we thought their weakness was outside so we tried to run outside on them.”
Backfield mate Kyle Flaherty added 118 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries while providing the inside complement to the speedy Mace.
“We were going to win or lose with Alex and Kyle; that was what was going to happen,” said Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette. “We were going to go with our great players. That was the goal — Alex outside and Kyle inside.”
While Oak Hill’s backfield was thriving — the Raiders amassed 338 of their 505 total yards on the ground — three of MCI’s top players were sidelined with injuries and saw only limited duty on offense and defense over the final three periods.
Senior halfback Jonathan Santiago, senior halfback-nose guard Eric Hathaway and junior fullback-linebacker Alex Bertrand all went down, requiring MCI to go deep into its bench in an attempt to keep pace with an Oak Hill team that struggled briefly at the outset of the contest before getting its offense untracked when it concentrated on the run.
“That’s been a problem all year,” said MCI coach Tom Bertrand, whose team had played without Santiago and Hathaway throughout much of the regular season due to injuries. “Once we lost some of those guys and had other guys stepping in … In a game like this, it takes its toll. But as I’ve said before, I have confidence in all of our guys.
“Certainly when you lose three guys like that who are keys, it hurts.”
A healthy MCI squad drove 54 yards with its first possession of the game to take a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard pass from junior quarterback Greg Vigue (17 of 32 passing for 125 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions) to senior wideout Austin Tolman with 6:22 left in the first quarter.
The Huskies were stalled on their next possession, but a 40-yard punt by Vigue was downed by Tolman at the Oak Hill 1, leaving the Raiders 99 yards from a tying touchdown.
It took the Raiders just four plays to go the distance, the fourth a late pitch that Mace took around right end and down the sideline the final 81 yards to the end zone to tie the game with 1:54 left in the opening period.
“We didn’t have an answer for him,” said Bertrand. “We’ve got to get to the film and see what that was all about because they found something they liked and they hit it, and he’s a heck of a player. I’ve been saying all week, [Mace and Flaherty] are the two best players in Western Maine Class D, and they showed it tonight.”
MCI regained the lead at 13-7 with a 16-play, 71-yard march capped off when Hathaway hit Tolman with a 21-yard halfback option pass to the right side of the end zone on a fourth-and-4 play with 9:03 left in the half.
That lead lasted just four plays, as Therrien found Kyle Tervo down the right sideline with a 45-yard touchdown pass and Adam Merrill added one of his six extra-point kicks to give Oak Hill a 14-13 lead with 7:31 left in the half.
“We just knew we had to pull it together; we knew we were a better team than that,” said Mace. “Finally we just made things happen, and the seniors got things in gear.”
A 37-yard Therrien-to-Mace pass on Oak Hill’s first possession of the second half extended the lead to 21-13, then Mace broke the game open with his 57-yard punt return to the end zone.
The teams had swapped three fumbles on as many plays moments earlier before Oak Hill’s defense anchored by senior linebacker Samson Lacroix forced a three-and-out by MCI.
Oak Hill, which hadn’t put a kick returner back on MCI’s previous two punts, sent Mace back for Vigue’s kick from the Huskies’ 20.
Mace fielded the ball at the Oak Hill 43, broke two early tackles and then sprinted down the left side of the field, eluding a late tackle bid by Vigue before tiptoeing along the sideline the final 5 yards to the end zone to make it 27-13 wth 4:53 left in the period.
“I just saw everyone blocking for me, my whole family out there, and it was great,” said Mace.
Flaherty got on the scoreboard less than two minutes into the fourth quarter on a 6-yard run before MCI finally countered when Tolman scored his third touchdown of the night on a 9-yard pass from Vigue with 7:50 remaining.
Senior fullback Chad Merrill added Oak Hill’s final score on a 4-yard run with 1:08 left.
