Jim Bower keeps his balance and scores three touchdowns for Oxford Hills.
SOUTH PARIS – While both football teams had to play through a steady rain, whipping winds and squishy field conditions at Gouin Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon, it became clear as the game unfolded that Oxford Hills had an advantage over Waterville.
That advantage was sophomore tailback Jim Bower, and the Vikings did their best to exploit it.
Displaying remarkable balance on the slick turf to go with his speed and power, the sophomore running back rushed for 209 yards and all three of Oxford Hills’ touchdowns as the Vikings celebrated a soggy Homecoming with a 24-17 win.
“Jimmy’s a very talented kid,” said Oxford Hills coach Paul Bickford. “By the same token, our line up front was unbelievable, too. We ran the ball very well today, and Waterville was bringing a lot of people to plug up the box. Those guys made the difference today.”
With senior fullback Scott Slack (10 rushes, 55 yards) also enjoying some gaping holes to run through, the Vikings piled up 265 of their 297 total yards on the ground, including a 57-yard game-winning drive midway through the fourth quarter.
Bower and Slack split the first six carries of the series before Bower, sprung by a nice block from Slack, capped it off with a 24-yard TD run around the left side.
“He’s a good player. You’ve got to wrap him up. You can’t just hit him because he’s not going to go down,” Waterville coach Frank Knight said. “On that big long run, we had him in the backfield and the guy didn’t wrap him up. He ran him over and scooted outside.”
The long run Knight referred to was a 60-yard second quarter jaunt that moved the Vikes (4-1) from their own 27 to the Waterville 13. Bower carried the ball two more times down to the 5, but the Purple Panthers defense held and forced Oxford Hills to settle for a 22-yard Justin Cocroft field goal that gave the Vikings a 17-10 lead at halftime.
Waterville tied the game on the opening drive of the second half. Facing a fourth-and-six at the Vikes’ 22, QB Kevin Scott connected with Dylan Veilleux for a touchdown that, with Andrew Livingston’s PAT, knotted it up at 17-17.
Oxford Hills looked poised to answer on its next drive, advancing to within inches of the goal line before a fumble recovered by Waterville’s John Hart at his own 4 ended the threat.
The Vikings defense rose to the occasion, however, shutting out the Panthers (1-4) on their last five third-down conversion attempts while also denying them on two of three fourth-down plays. A well-executed fake punt completion from Scott to Veilleux kept the Panthers alive for another series of downs on their penultimate drive, but Oxford Hills didn’t yield any more ground on their next four plays.
“We put ourselves in a tough spot with third-and-long,” said Knight. “We made some plays. It was a tough day to throw the football, though. If our run game could be a little more established, we wouldn’t be in those positions.”
Oxford Hills put the Panthers in those positions by doing a good job of containing Matt Hilton (25 rushes, 108 yards), Waterville’s big-play halfback whose longest run on the day went for 20 yards.
“I was very pleased defensively, especially in the second half,” said Bickford. “Physically, we started to wear them down a little bit, and that was big.”
Brandon Burnham’s interception on fourth down with 1:35 to play locked up the win for Oxford Hills.
Livington opened the scoring on Waterville’s first drive of the game with a 27-yard field goal. Bower put the Vikings in front on their next possession with a 12-yard run off right tackle where he ran over a tackler who met him head-on at the goal line.
The Vikes had a tougher time breaking through on their next score, as Waterville stuffed Bower and Slack on three straight runs from the 1. Bower finally punched it in off right tackle on fourth down to make it 14-3.
Scott made it 14-10 with 9:42 left in the second quarter on a 1-yard TD dive of his own.
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