Western Class B football semifinal: Falcons get back at Wildcats

YORK — At 5 feet, 8 inches, Tim Ross isn't your prototypical cornerback, even in Maine high school football. But Friday night, the 129-pound senior felt like the tallest player on the field.

Ross picked off a long stretch pass from York quarterback Chris Cole intended for a much taller and larger Jared Prugar to stuff a late Wildcats drive and helped his Falcons avenge a 19-point loss during the regular season as Mountain Valley snuck away from York High School with a 14-10 Western Class B semifinal win.

"(Cole) overthrew it a little, I jumped up and got my hands as high as I could and came down with it," Ross said. "It was going to Prugar, so I knew he was going deep. They were doing the little zig-outs all game, and I just made the play."

The No. 2 Wildcats trampled all over No. 3 Mountain Valley in the teams' previous meeting, rushing for well over 200 yards of total offense. Friday, the Falcons' run defense, led by Brady Fergola, stuffed Prugar down after down.

"We had him stopped at the line the last time we played, too," Mountain Valley coach Jim Aylward said of Prugar, "but we weren't wrapping him up and making any tackles. That was the big difference tonight."

"They made more plays than we did," York coach Randy Small said. "It was a snot-flingin', snot-bubblin,' tight fighting game, and they came out four points better than we did."

The Wildcats offense found some life through the air in the first half, and Cole finished the game with 175 passing yards, most of which came in the opening half.

But in the trenches, where York had been so dominant a fortnight ago, the Falcons flexed their muscle.

"We knew they were going to run right at us, so we changed a few things on our run defense," Fergola said. "We stopped the run. They hurt us a little with the pass, but we made the adjustments, came out and stopped them."

On the other side of the ball, the Mountain Valley line held up, as well, opening seam after seam for Fergola and tailback Matt Duka.

"We didn't want to have to throw the ball; we only throw when we have to," Fergola said. "Our line did a (heck) of a job, opened up the holes, we just hit through then holes and had room."

Duka reached the 1,000-yard mark for the season with a 13-yard run early in the third quarter. He finished the game with 20 carried for 96 yards and the go-ahead touchdown.

Fergola added 72 yards on another 20 carries, and Cole finished with 84 passing yards and one touchdown.

The Falcons held Prugar in check in the first half, but the team's pass defense bent much too far. The Wildcats completed eight passes for 138 yards in the first two quarters, including their lone touchdown, a 22-yard strike to Prugar on a fade route.

The Falcons marched right back and finally found some traction in the running game in the second quarter. Fergola opened a couple of holes for himself off the left side, and Matt Duka found his groove on several toss plays around the left end behind Fergola.

The Falcons took four downs from the York 5-yard-line and lit the scoreboard in their favor on a 5-yard pass from Day to Christian Durland over the middle.

In a bizarre sequence to end the first half, the Falcons appeared to have stuffed York inside the Mountain Valley 5-yard line as time ran out. But an injury to a York lineman and a clock stoppage for no apparent reason left the Wildcats with essentially an untimed fourth down from the one.

Leal let one fly for a field goal to put the home team on top 10-7 into the break.

"We would have liked the seven, but they made a good stop on us," Small said.

"I thought we (got the momentum)," Aylward said. "I went back and explained to the kids, officiating never determines a game. I told them that York drove the ball on us to get into that position in the first place, and that they deserved the points. We felt early in the game we made a couple of mistakes that cost us, but we recovered well and played a solid second half."