WINSLOW – Bruce Nicholas was being realistic Saturday.

He knew a win for his Oak Hill football team would be a longshot against unbeaten Winslow, but with a possible playoff showdown looming between the two teams in a few weeks, Nicholas thought it would be a good chance for his Raiders to see what worked and what didn’t.

As it turned out, more things didn’t work than did in a 49-12 loss to the Black Raiders. Winslow built a 42-0 advantage by halftime, handing Oak Hill its second loss of the season.

“I figured we might see these guys in three weeks,” said Nicholas. “If we have a chance in hell to beat them, it probably is going to be a lot of shotgun and spreading the field. Today was a feeling out. Can we run our shotgun? What are they doing against it? If we play them again in three weeks, what things can we do against it?”

The Raiders had some success with the passing game in the second half, scoring twice, but turnovers and a struggling running attack put Oak Hill in a hole in the opening half.

“We came out and we wanted to try a double-tight wishbone, but they were getting penetration,” said Nicholas. “Then we’d just try to run a counter, and they’re already in our backfield.”

Oak Hill was held to minus-14 yards in the first half. The Raiders fumbled the ball away once and had two passes picked off.

“Our defense has been extremely strong,” said Winslow coach Mike Siviski, who is Nicholas’ cousin. “Our defense has been consistant all year. The first team has maybe allowed just one or two touchdowns. The kids run to the ball hard.”

Winslow’s ground game ran all over the Raiders, piling up 349 total yards in the first half.

Andrew Millett led all rushers with 150 yards on 20 carries while Derek Runnels gained 123 yards on 16 carries. Winslow finished with 467 yards on the ground.

“Our running game has been extremely powerful,” said Siviski. “We’ve been in a situation where our starters have played a period and two minutes or a period and four minutes. So we have to work hard this week to get ready to play a full game. Our starters really haven’t been in a full game all year.”

The Raiders actually started off slow offensively. A interception by Kyle Harrington halted one possession. Two penalties that nullified a 77-yard scoring run by Millett and a 78-yard run by Runnels plagued the next. Still, those long runs were a sign of things to come.

Millett scored first with 11 seconds left in the opening quarter when he burst through the middle from the 9. On the next possession, Matt Nelson scampered through the line virtually untouched and raced 69 yards for the score with 10:50 left in the half. After Justin Shorey recovered an Oak Hill fumble at the Oak Hill 5, Runnells took it in 30 seconds later.

The Raiders couldn’t keep Winslow’s offense off the field. Millett scored on a 61-yard run, Marty McCaslin added a 13-yard touchdown run and quarterback Josh Lapointe plunged in from the 1, following an interception.

“I told them that I don’t mind them taking six minutes and running 25 plays,” said Nicholas. “We can deal with that. We can’t just give them a dive to (Nelson) and let him go 60 yards. That’s where we stopped playing for awhile. We stopped tackling.”

Oak Hill played better in the second half and found some success, passing for 110 yards. On their second possession, the Raiders scored on a 35-yard screen pass from Adam Labbe to Tony Poulin. Then early in the fourth, Labbe connected with Harrington in the end zone on a 13-yard scoring play.

“The second half we came out a little better and scored one,” said Nicholas. “I told the guys, let’s take away the good stuff and chalk it up.”

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