By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

LIVERMORE FALLS – Boothbay scored with such relative ease on its first possession Friday night at Griffin Field, some Seahawks and their fans probably thought beating winless Livermore Falls would be an easy task.

But the banged-up Andies weren’t going to go down that easy in their home opener, and they gave the unbeaten Seahawks all they could handle before finally bowing in overtime.

Roy Arsenault connected with Kris Noonan in the end zone to tie the game in the extra session, then ran in the two-point conversion to give Boothbay a 34-32 win in a classic blood-and-guts Campbell Conference stand-off.

“We had a quarterback in a full cast (Mike Nichols, who broke a knuckle on his throwing hand) who played a whale of a game with one hand and our fullback (Ryan Webster) was out for a good part of the time,” said Andies coach Brad Bishop. “The kids played hard. That’s all you can ask.”

Mark O’Shea scored from 10 yards out on the first play of overtime to give the Andies the lead. Kicker Donovan Smith fanned on the extra-point attempt, though it was of little consequence because the Seahawks (3-0) were going for two all night.

A false start penalty left Boothbay with third-and-goal from the nine, when Arsenault dropped back and lobbed a pass into the end zone to 6-foot-4 end Kris Noonan, who hauled it in as he fell, then juggled it as he landed on an Andies’ defender. Officials ruled he had control of the ball, however, and the game was tied.

“It wasn’t a very good pass, but that kid is like, 6-5, and he’ll catch anything,” said Arsenault, who finished with 92 yards and two touchdowns rushing, and 65 yards and a score passing.

The Seahawks forced overtime by battling back after Karlton Jones’ 44-yard TD run put the Andies (0-3) up 26-20 with 2:47 left. Arsenault drove them 62 yards in just over two minutes and scored on a 14-yard TD run to make it all square with 30 seconds left. Milton Parlin stopped Kostas Rigas on the ensuing two-point attempt to preserve the tie.

Livermore Falls recovered splendidly after coming out flat for Boothbay’s first drive. The Seahawks drove 61 yards on nine plays with little resistance to take a 6-0 lead on Blake Krukiel’s one-yard plunge. The Andies responded with an impressive eight-play drive of their own, capped by Webster’s seven-yard TD run and took the lead on Smith’s extra point.

Tom Gagnon’s interception of Arsenault behind the line of scrimmage set Livermore Falls up with great field position (Boothbay’s 21) on its next possession. Webster punched it in from a yard out on fourth down to give the Andies a 13-6 advantage.

Arsenault pulled the Seahawks within a point going into halftime with a 49-yard TD run during which he side-stepped two defenders along the left sideline, and yet still managed to stay in bounds.

Livermore Falls’ only turnover, a fumbled punt in the third quarter, set up the Seahawks’ go-ahead TD, a one-yard dive by Krukiel, who added the two-pointer to make it 20-13. The Andies came back with what had been working all night, pounding Webster into the line. The senior fullback (34 carries, 164 yards, three TDs) ran to the point of exhaustion, even lost his dinner on the field at one point, but not before he tied the game with his second seven-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Andies missed two chances to take the lead later in the quarter, first when Smith’s 25-yard field goal attempt fell just short of the crossbar, then when a 60-yard TD run by Webster was called back on a clipping penalty. Two plays later, though, Jones’ scoring run gave them the short-lived lead.

Boothbay remained calm, though, keeping the ball on the ground with runs of 11, seven and six yards from Arsenault and a 14-yard jaunt by Krukiel before Arsenault followed a convoy of blockers into the end zone around the left side for the tying score.

“This was more about being a team tonight than anything else,” said Boothbay coach Tim Rice. “This is what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to play 48 minutes and give yourself a chance at the end. For this team, that’s just an outstanding win.”