PITTSFIELD, Maine — The undefeated Maine Central Institute Huskies scored a victory for two teams Friday night.
MCI not only capped off its third-straight undefeated regular season with a 37-7 LTC Class D North football victory over Mount View of Thorndike on Senior Night at Alumni Field, coach Tom Bertrand’s club also ensured that Bucksport would secure the conference’s fourth and final playoff berth.
Mount View (5-4) needed a win over MCI and a Bucksport loss to Ellsworth-Sumner in a game rescheduled for Saturday afternoon because of inclement weather to edge out the Golden Bucks for fourth place.
Instead, top-seeded MCI rushed for 225 yards in the first half while building a 21-0 lead and cruised to its ninth victory of the season. The Huskies will host No. 4 Bucksport in one LTC semifinal next Friday night. No. 2 Orono will host No. 3 Dexter in the other semifinal.
“It hadn’t rained much this year, so it wasn’t perfect conditions,” said MCI senior quarterback Josh Buker, who passed for one touchdown and returned a punt for a second score to help MCI score its 29th-straight win against LTC competition.
“It gave us an advantage coming in because we were able to get our run game going,” he said.
Classmate Eli Bussell rushed nine times for 71 yards and a touchdown. Willie Moss rushed for 62 yards, and Adam Bertrand added a rushing score.
MCI drove 55 yards on its first possession of the game after Bussell recovered a Mount View fumble to take a 7-0 lead on Bertrand’s 8-yard run with 7:28 left in the first quarter.
Moss ran for 12 yards on the Huskies’ first play from scrimmage to move the ball into the Mustangs’ territory, and Bertrand eventually ran wide left to the end zone on a fourth-and-2 play.
Deron Varney followed with the extra-point kick.
The Huskies added two more touchdowns in the second quarter.
Buker capped off a 12-play, 80-yard march with an 11-yard scoring pass to David Young 57 seconds into the period.
The Huskies followed with a 52-yard drive that lasted just 1:21 before Bussell scored from the 4 to make it 21-0 with 3:19 left in the half.
MCI outgained Mount View 236-56 in the opening two quarters, with the Mustangs slowed by three turnovers — two of them interceptions by Bertrand and Moss.
Mount View got the ball in MCI territory after a Moss fumble two plays into the second half, but an 11-yard sack of Mustangs quarterback Rayno Boivin by Young and an illegal block penalty on the Mustangs ended that threat.
Buker made Mount View pay for its lack of offensive success, taking a lateral from Moss on the ensuing punt and racing 73 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown — his seventh by punt return this fall.
“I just saw a seam and cut it back and went down the sideline,” said Buker. “Adam [Bertrand] set me up with a block on two people to get me to the seam, and then I had great blocking down the sideline.”
Buker then rushed for the two-point conversion to extend the MCI lead to 29-0 with 8:09 left in the period.
Mount View finally broke through on its next possession against MCI’s second-team defense, with fullback Darrin Cook running for 45 yards and Colby Furrow following with a 25-yard gain on back-to-back plays to set up a 5-yard touchdown run around the right corner by Boivin with 4:19 to play in the third.
Furrow’s extra-point kick made it 29-7.
Senior Travis Brunette added a 2-yard touchdown run for MCI with 4:56 left in the fourth quarter, and freshman quarterback Dominic Wilson ran for the two-point conversion to extend the Huskies’ lead to 37-7.
