ORONO, Maine — Senior quarterback Dalton Therrien amassed 432 yards of total offense Friday night as Oak Hill of Wales won its third consecutive Class D state championship by defeating Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield 34-21 at Morse Field.
“It seems like an impossible thing to do,” said Therrien. “If you had told me freshman year that this would happen I’d have told you you were crazy. But with hard work and dedication throughout the summer and throughout the season we’ve come together and found the way to get the job done.”
Therrien passed for 242 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 190 yards and four more scores as the 11-0 Raiders secured their 21st consecutive victory and defeated MCI in the state final for the second straight year.
“He’s a really good athlete,” said MCI coach Tom Bertrand. “We knew he was going to be able to make plays and we needed to contain him but we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
MCI, seeking its first state championship since 1974, was hurt by seven turnovers on the night, including five pass interceptions.
“We could never really find that offensive rhythm, and when we did they made plays on us,” said Bertrand, whose LTC champions ended their season at 10-1. “We can look back and second-guess all day long, but again we’ve got to put the ball in the hands of the guys who got us here and I’m proud of them.”
Oak Hill led 18-14 at the end of a first half that included six turnovers, three by each team.
Therrien completed eight of 15 passes for 200 yards before intermission, but three interceptions by MCI’s Braden Monteyro helped keep the Huskies in contention.
Monteyro’s second pick may have been the key play of the half for the Huskies.
With MCI trailing 18-7, the senior cornerback jumped in front of Darryn Bailey to intercept a pass in the left flat and returned it 37 yards before being forced out of bounds by Therrien with 39 seconds left in the second quarter.
Willie Moss (30 carries, 143 yards) then scored on third down from the 1, and combined with Devon Varney’s extra-point kick the late score pulled the Huskies back into the game.
Monteryo added a third pick — and just the fourth interception thrown by Therrien this season — on the final play of the half.
The Raiders went to the air to take a 6-0 lead with 1:24 left in the opening quarter, with Therrien passing to Jonah Martin, who caught the ball on the left side of the field at the Oak Hill 45, broke one tackle and then ran across the field to complete a 63-yard touchdown play.
MCI answered five plays into the second quarter, after Huskies lineman Curtis McLeod stripped Oak Hill’s Levi Buteau of the ball and recovered the fumble at the Raiders’ 19.
Four straight runs by Moss produced the touchdown, the scoring coming from a yard out with 10:53 left in the first half. Varney’s extra point gave MCI a 7-6 lead.
Oak Hill countered with a 10-play, 68-yard touchdown drive to regain the lead at 12-7 on a 1-yard keeper by Therrien with 7:04 left in the second quarter.
Connor Nilsson then drilled a squib kickoff off the legs of an MCI player, and teammate Matt Clifford recovered the loose ball at the Oak Hill 45. Therrien then completed passes of 14, 26 and 11 yards before scoring on a 5-yard run to make it 18-7 with 5:54 before intermission.
Oak Hill drove from its 32 to the MCI 14 with its first possession of the second half, thanks in large part to a 36-yard pass from Therrien to Nilsson. But the drive stalled as MCI’s Josh Buker knocked down a fourth-down pass intended for Nilsson inside the 5.
MCI marched 63 yards in 10 plays to regain the lead at 21-18, with Eli Bussell scoring from the 1 with 1:23 left in the third quarter.
But Therrien, who had thrown six straight incompletions, used his legs to regain the lead for Oak Hill, capping a string of five straight runs with a 16-yard touchdown dash on the final play of the period.
Therrien passed to Matt Strout for the two-point conversion that gave the Raiders a 26-21 lead entering the final period.
A 40-yard punt by Oak Hill’s Levi Buteau was downed by teammate Colby Spencer at the MCI 1, and that led to a safety on the next play as the Huskies fumbled the center snap and was downed in the end zone to extend the Raiders’ lead to 28-21 with 9:36 left.
MCI moved from its 30 inside Oak Hill territory with less than 5 minutes left, but Greg Vigue was stripped of the ball by Buteau on a first-down run and the Raiders’ Austin Goucher recovered at the OH 41 to end the drive.
MCI got the ball back four plays later after Therrien fumbled and lost a yard on fourth-and-1 from midfield, but the Huskies couldn’t capitalize as Vigue’s second-down pass to the left flat was intercepted by Buteau.
Two plays later, Therrien dashed 48 yards to the end zone with 1:16 to play.
