OLD TOWN, Maine — T.J. Crawford rushed for 182 yards and two touchdowns Friday night as Old Town capped off an undefeated regular season with a 31-8 victory over Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor at Victory Field.
“We all believe in each other,” said Old Town senior quarterback Jake Jarvis after guiding coach Lance Cowan’s club to its eighth win. “We’ve just had go out each week and play one game at a time, just play to be 1-0 each week.”
Old Town and 7-0 Winslow reside atop the Class C North football standings, with Winslow closing out its regular season against 1-6 Waterville on Saturday.
A Winslow win would require a coin toss between Old Town and Winslow to determine first and second places in the division. If Waterville wins, Old Town will be seeded first and Winslow second.
In either case, Old Town and Winslow will earn first-round playoff byes while third-place MDI (6-2) will host a regional quarterfinal next weekend.
Jarvis complemented Crawford’s rushing prowess by completing eight of 13 passes to five different receivers for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
“We’re really balanced between the run and pass,” said Jarvis. “T.J. runs the ball really hard and up front tonight we did a great job blocking and that really helped both the pass and the run games.”
Taner Bickford paced MDI offensively with 147 yards on 21 rushes, but the Trojans were hurt by three lost fumbles.
“We thought definitely the hardest thing tonight would be stopping their ‘T’ (offense),” said Old Town senior wideout-safety Andre Miller. “We knew they run the ball really well, but we knew if we could stop them and make them pass that we had a really good chance of winning.”
Old Town scored on its final three possessions of the second quarter to take a 24-8 halftime lead.
The Coyotes took an 8-0 lead three plays after Drew Ryder recovered a fumble by Bickford at the Trojans’ 11 on the third play of the second quarter.
T.J. Crawford went in from the 5, then rushed for the two-point conversion, but that lead lasted for less than two minutes before MDI fullback Croix Albee scored from 4 yards out with 8:49 left in the first half, just after Bickford raced through the defense for a 43-yard gain to the 4.
Albee then rushed for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 8-8.
Old Town then went to the airways for its next two scores.
Jarvis first found Pascal Cyr down the left sideline for a 41-yard touchdown strike on the Coyotes’ next possession with 5:19 left before intermission. Miller then passed to Crawford for the two-point conversion good for a 16-8 Old Town lead.
The Coyotes then marched 77 yards to stretch its lead out before the break, with Jarvis finding Miller open down the left sideline behind three defenders for a 35-yard touchdown pass with 50 seconds left in the second quarter.
Jarvis then passed to Crawford for the final two points of the half.
MDI drove deep into Old Town territory with its first two possessions of the second half only to come up empty.
A 34-yard run by Bickford on the first play after the kickoff moved the ball inside the MDI 20, but the drive ended four plays later on an MDI lost fumble at the Old Town 10.
MDI got the ball back after an Old Town punt on the Coyotes’ 34-yard line, but the ensuing drive inside the 10 stalled on a fourth-down pass incompletion into the end zone.
Old Town then marched 95 yards in 11 plays to push its lead to 31-8 early in the fourth quarter.
