By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

WINSLOW – Oak Hill High School’s dead end in the Eastern Class B football playoffs, a 54-8 walloping from unbeaten, top-seeded Winslow that could have been worse, shouldn’t represent the journey.

The Raiders (3-6) gave Leavitt fits and pestered Gardiner and Belfast to the final horn during the Pine Tree Conference regular season. They weren’t this disheveled or discombobulated. They were simply caught in the path of the perfect storm Saturday afternoon at Poulin Field.

“We didn’t have a game like that all year, but you never know. A team like that,” said Oak Hill coach and Winslow native Bruce Nicholas, “gets into people’s heads. They’re just a damn good football team, and the scary part is that they’re mostly juniors.”

Reigning regional champion Winslow (9-0) scored six first-half touchdowns, forced five turnovers, turned its junior varsity loose after the break and started resting up for a rematch with across-the-bridge rival Waterville in next week’s semifinals.

Winslow used a late surge to whack Waterville last week, 36-15, in the first non-exhibition game between the neighboring schools since 1990.

“They’ll be coming after us,” said Winslow quarterback Stephen Siviski, who tossed touchdown passes of 28 yards to Ryan Cosgrove and 11 yards to Kevin McCabe.

Justin Lindie ran for two short TDs and led the Black Raiders with 65 yards on only seven carries.

John Goulette, Ben Poulin and Eric Bezanson each rushed for a score, and Andrew Hikel ran back an interception 15 yards to paydirt for Winslow.

“All our backs have broken at least one long touchdown run this year, and all our ends have caught at least one or two touchdown passes,” Winslow coach Mike Siviski said. “We didn’t expect (a rout). We knew they did a great job against Gardiner and Leavitt, so our kids were ready to play today. We did not overlook this game.”

With Winslow already leading 42-0, Oak Hill senior Zac Eaton broke up the shutout with a 27-yard TD run late in the third quarter. Nick Brown also leveled Cory Bezanson in the end zone for a fourth-quarter safety.

Scott Daniels recovered two Winslow fumbles, while Casey Behne picked off Siviski at the goal line, and Todd Nyberg delivered a blindside sack and a forced fumble for Oak Hill.

Offensively, Eaton led Oak Hill with 12 carries for 51 yards. Plagued by a stress fracture during the season, Eaton ran gingerly at times. So did Wally Rines, who sustained a late-season knee ailment.

Two-way captain, leading tackler and short-yardage back Eric Daniels already was watching the proceedings in a wheelchair after breaking his left leg two weeks ago against Maranacook, and Oak Hill lost another defensive stalwart when Dan Bryce departed in the first half Saturday with a left shoulder injury.

The coach acknowledged that it would have taken countless more reinforcements to derail Winslow.

As if to demonstrate what Oak Hill was up against, after Goulette ran in from 4 yards out to make it 35-0 late in the second quarter, the loud wail of a fire truck siren led a parade behind the stadium for the Winslow girls’ soccer team, which won the Eastern Class B title earlier Saturday.

“These kids know how to win. This school wins in football, soccer, field hockey, basketball, you name it, and we don’t win in much of anything,” Nicholas said. “We’ve won our battles here and there, but what you had today was a team that didn’t quite know how to win (against) a team that expected to win.”