ELLSWORTH, Maine — Early workouts this week had a different backdrop for the Ellsworth-Sumner football team.
For the first time since the program’s rebirth in 2012, the Eagles are riding the momentum of victory.
Last Saturday night’s 22-8 victory at Washington Academy of East Machias may not have been a complete artistic success, but coach Duane Crawford’s Ellsworth-Sumner club couldn’t have been happier with the bottom line.
“Our defense just played outstanding the entire game,” he said. “Offensively there was not a lot of consistency because of all the turnovers, but against WA it was the big plays that got us where we needed to be.”
The win was the first for an Ellsworth varsity football team since the Eagles defeated Foxcroft Academy 19-13 on Oct. 15, 1955. The program, which originally was started in 1951, disbanded after the 1955 season and did not begin varsity play again until 2012.
Ellsworth-Sumner endured three straight 0-8 seasons upon its return to the varsity ranks, then dropped its 2015 season opener to Orono 36-12 to extend the restored team’s victory drought to 25 games.
“Going into playing Orono I wasn’t sure what we were going to look like, and looking at Orono on film or looking at any team on film it’s really hard to gauge how you compare with them,” said Crawford. “But we went out there and competed with Orono, we did well. I was surprised because I had visions of it being 50-0 at halftime and that wasn’t the case at all. It was a game for all four quarters.”
That outcome, even in defeat, left the Eagles optimistic a breakthrough was forthcoming.
“From looking at the Orono game and looking at game film of WA and the teams they played, I told the kids this was a game we can win, to work hard all week and go out there and play and it could be a ‘W’,” Crawford said. “That’s what happened.”
The game didn’t start well for the Eagles, with a fumbled snap on their first offensive play giving Washington Academy good field position.
But the Ellsworth-Sumner defense stood tall throughout the night while Devin Wright rushed for 239 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries to pace the offense.
Wright scored on first-half runs of 55 and 2 yards as the Eagles built a 14-0 lead. A late interception by Jacob Shorey set up Wright’s final score from 1 yard out in the game’s final minutes of play.
Tyler Hardwick and Wally Moon also came up big defensively for Ellsworth-Sumner, Hardwick with five solo tackles and two defensed passes and Moon with a fumble recovery and two quarterback sacks.
“Every year we’ve gotten better and better and last year, even though we didn’t win, we were in a few games, which was more than we could say for the previous years,” said Crawford, whose team will host 0-2 Stearns of Millinocket on Friday night.
“When we got the kids together this year, looking at what we had, we were encouraged that we could put that first win on the board.”
