Jay capitalizes on four key plays to top Livermore Falls.
JAY – When you wear the black-and-orange on the gridiron at Jay High School, the thoughts that keep you awake at night or distract you in chemistry class turn toward two, gold-colored, tin footballs.
One of those trophies is symbolic of the winner of the traditional season-ending game between Jay and Livermore Falls, a series that has lit the fire of riverside residents in these parts since 1939. After a two-year residence in the Andies’ prize closet, that statue got a kiss from defensive captain Shawn Jacques before heading up the hill from Taglienti Field to its new digs after Jay’s 26-6 victory Friday night.
“We haven’t won that trophy since my freshman year,” said Jacques, a 5-foot-8, 165-pound senior safety. “I played a little bit in that game, but this is what I wanted. All year long, our coaches knew this game was in our mind and kept telling us not to think about it. This week, they said, ‘It’s time.'”
Playoff time, that is. That starts next week, and that’s where the second Gold Ball, awarded to the state champion in each class, comes in. Jay hasn’t challenged for that shiny piece of craftsmanship in a dozen years and hasn’t won one in the current players’ lifetime.
The Tigers (8-1) avenged last year’s 47-7 drubbing against Livermore Falls, won their seventh straight game and secured the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Western Class C playoffs.
Jay hosts defending champion Boothbay in a semifinal at 7 p.m. next Friday night. Livermore Falls (6-3) landed the fourth and final playoff berth, earning a trip to Lisbon next Saturday afternoon.
“To make the playoffs is huge, and we definitely wanted that home game,” said Jay coach Mark Bonnevie, a former player and longtime assistant in his second season at the helm. “The kids worked for this ever since that (Livermore) game last year. I didn’t bring it up this week, but they (the players) did.”
Three big plays and one turnover turned the latest renewal of Maine’s premier small-school rivalry in the Tigers’ favor before 3,000 bipartisan spectators.
Jay scored on its first and fourth plays from scrimmage. Austin Ouellette scooted 59 yards on a sweep toward to the home sideline with 10:32 left in the opening quarter. Kyle Richards scored from 34 yards out on a counter play with 8:15 to go, and Justin Wells’ conversion pass to Ryan Dipompo made it 14-0.
Livermore Falls battled back to make it 14-6 less than three minutes later. Brad Bryant’s 46-yard run set up a 6-yard score by Chuck Drake, one of only four seniors in uniform for the Andies.
For the second time this season, Livermore Falls caught a bad break when Drake left the game due to a medical emergency at halftime. According to coach Brad Bishop, Drake was alert as medical personnel attended to him on the adjacent field hockey turf.
“He seems fine now. We’re not sure what happened,” said Bishop. “We have to see who’s healthy and get ready for Lisbon. That’s football. We had three freshmen out there at times, but no excuses. The better team won tonight.”
The injury may have stemmed from Drake’s collision with Marc Kelvey after Livermore Falls muffed Mike Nemi’s punt in the final minute of the first half. Kelvey was slow to get up, also, but he recovered the ball at the LF-20.
Four plays later, Wells (10-for-17, 170 yards) rolled right and found Ouellette for a 9-yard score and a 20-6 halftime lead.
Wells hit Kelvey deep in the right flat for the lone score of the second half, a 73-yard play on which Kelvey zigzagged right to left and sent three Andies’ defenders sliding to the muddy ground with 2:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Bryant, the Campbell Conference rushing leader, finished with 34 carries for 187 yards in another gritty effort, pushing him to the 1,500-yard mark for the autumn.
“But no real big ones,” Bonnevie noted.
Jacques shadowed Bryant all night to the tune of 18 tackles.
“Coach had me stand in the middle and follow him everywhere he went,” Jacques said. “Brad’s a great friend. You’d think we wouldn’t be during the game, but on every play he’d say, ‘good hit’ and I’d say: ‘great run.’ That’s Jay-Livermore.”
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