WALES – By the end of Saturday afternoon’s football game between Oak Hill and Maranacook, the teams might have been better off chartering a boat to help them off the field.
Amid drenching rain, the Raiders rambled for 285 yards, including a 131-yard effort by Zac Eaton, sinking the Black Bears 34-0 in their annual homecoming game.
“Anybody can say what they want about liking to play in this weather,” said Oak Hill coach Bruce Nicholas. “I don’t like playing in it. It limits what you can do; people are fumbling snaps all over the place. You have to go straight ahead and keep plays simple, and when you lose your fullback, it makes it even tougher.”
Oak Hill fullback Eric Daniels had 59 yards rushing on just six carries, including a 42-yard scamper on the Raiders’ first play from scrimmage in the second quarter, but at the end of that run a collar-tackle from behind sent him to the sidelines for the rest of the game. Preliminary indications, according to Nicholas, pointed to a broken bone in Daniels’ lower shin or ankle.
“We have some depth (at running back),” said Nicholas. “It’s getting thin now, and having a player down makes it thinner, but we had a little bit of depth there to begin with.”
In place of Daniels, Nicholas went with freshman Drew Janelle, brother of last year’s leading rusher Troy Janelle.
“Drew’s a tough kid, and he’s been running great for the freshmen,” said Nicholas. “He’s the fullback of the future, and it looks like the future’s a little bit sooner than we want.”
For Maranacook, while the weather served to equalize the game for a while, the game turned ugly quickly.
“Early it could have helped,” said Maranacook coach Greg Lynch. “But we were fumbling the snaps and they weren’t doing that. I think we probably had eight of those, and that’s eight downs where we’re not getting any yards.”
Maranacook managed just 87 yards on the ground and another 60 through the air.
Despite the advantage on paper, and the turnover margin, Oak Hill knew scoring early, before the weather continued to decline, was key.
“We had to score some early, we thought,” said Nicholas. “Once you get to this point, where it’s raining so hard, it can stay 0-0 for a long time and nobody scores. I’m glad we got those touchdowns early.”
Daniels scored the first Raider touchdown of the afternoon with 5:12 remaining in the first quarter on a 5-yard run off the left tackle.
Four fumbles (three by Maranacook) later, Oak Hill punched in another score, this time thanks to Eaton’s fleet feet.
Oak Hill managed one more touchdown before halftime to take a 20-0 lead at the break.
In the third quarter, again following a series of fumbles, Oak Hill converted a 26-yard pass play from quarterback Josh Jillson to Casey Behne for its fourth touchdown, adding the fifth and final score on an interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
For Oak Hill, only a bitter matchup with perennial rival Leavitt remains this season, and Nicholas expects to have sidelined back Wally Rines back for next week’s tilt to help fill the void left by Daniels’ injury.
Comments are no longer available on this story