By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Here’s what Saturday held in store for the last two teams standing in Class A football. For the Bonny Eagle Scots, another championship and a well-earned place among the great teams in state history. For the Mt. Blue Cougars, questions on how they let it slip away so quickly.

Bonny Eagle scored three times in the span of five minutes and 40 seconds in the second and third quarters to break away and win its second state title in a row with a 41-13 victory over Mt. Blue under clear skies at Fitzpatrick Stadium Saturday.

The Scots (10-2) became the first Class A team to take back-to-back titles since South Portland pulled it off in 1995 and 1996.

“Once you win it once, your expectations are to win it again,” said senior QB Mike O’Donnell, who duplicated his older brother Matt’s feat of leading the Scots to the championship. “You don’t settle for nothing but the gold ball.”

“Historically speaking, the last team to do this was South Portland, and before that was Biddeford. Those are two pretty good programs that certainly we’re proud to be in the same sentence with,” said Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper.

Running back/linebacker John Wiechman was the star of the game, running for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries. The 5-foot-9, 195-pound senior frustrated Cougar defenders all day with an impressive combination of speed, quickness, patience and power.

“He stopped in the hole one time and just waited there for everything to go by him,” Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin said. “I haven’t seen a running back that runs in a hole like that.”

Not to be overlooked was O’Donnell, whose surprisingly powerful running out of the Scots’ shotgun prevented the Cougars from keying on Wiechman. He finished with 88 yards and two scores of his own on 15 rushes. He also completed 6-of-9 passes for 74 yards and a touchdown as the Scots piled up 425 yards in total offense.

“Having a quarterback who can run just makes that offense, because you can’t try to chase (Wiechman) down back side, not that anyone’s going to catch (him) back side,” Parlin said. “You do have to commit half of your people to O’Donnell.”

O’Donnell scored both of his rushing touchdowns in the first half and staked the Scots to the lead both times. But the Cougars (9-2) nearly matched them yard-for-yard in a first half that saw the two teams combine for 449 yards in total offense.

Mt. Blue had an early foray into the red zone thwarted by a Chase Murray interception on a slant pass QB Mason Barker intended for Arthur Trask (four catches, 80 yards, TD). They finally tied the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter when a 37-yard run by Mike Toothaker (14 carries, 91 yards) and a couple of completions by Barker (10-for-18, 182 yards, TD, three interceptions) set up Justin Lowe’s one-yard TD plunge up the middle.

“It took us awhile to adjust to the game. Mt. Blue moved the ball great on us. Offensively, they’re as good as any team we played just because they have so many weapons,” Cooper said. “We were able to pursue very well on Barker. That limited his yards, but Toothaker is a heck of a running back.”

After O’Donnell’s QB sneak from a yard out gave the Scots the lead again, the Cougars decided to go conservative with the ball at their own 18 and 2:43 left. They actually lost yardage while going three-and-out, and Murray returned John Moloney’s 44-yard punt for 23 yards to put the Scots in good position to try to build upon their lead with 1:09 to go.

“That was a huge stop before the half. There’s no question about it,” Cooper said. “We had a great punt return by Murray to get us to midfield. Then we felt comfortable being able to go for another touchdown. Going in 21-7 is a lot different than going in 14-7.”

O’Donnell connected with Ben Delcourt and Anthony Atkins, then ran for seven yards, to get the Scots down to the 10. Two plays later, he threw a low laser to Delcourt near the left sideline of the end zone for a touchdown that gave them a two-touchdown cushion going into the half.

“I saw the (defender) heavy on his back and I threw it low. I didn’t mean to throw it that low,” O’Donnell said.

“It took a lot of air out of us. We haven’t been down at halftime all year,” Parlin said. “”You can tell kids to do this and that when you’re down, but it’s tough. It’s a situation you can’t simulate in practice.”

The Scots didn’t waste much time digging the Cougars into a deeper hole at the start of the second half. They went 92 yards in eight plays on their initial drive, which was capped by Wiechman’s 34-yard scoring run, to go up three scores.

The defense then buckled down on Mt. Blue’s running game, particularly Barker (12 carries, 26 yards), who ran for over 500 yards this season but couldn’t escape the Scots’ speedy linebackers, Stan Watts (14 tackles) and Wiechman (10 tackles).

“We had them at the point of attack, but they’d get us back side,” Parlin said. “Wiechman is the best defensive player I’ve seen anywhere this year. He makes plays. He’s unblockable. The kid’s a football player.”

Going to the air didn’t help, though, as interceptions by Nick Davis and O’Donnell led to touchdowns by Neil Patnaude and Wiechman that made it 41-7 with 4:48 left in the third quarter.

Barker added a 54-yard TD toss to Trask late in the game to complete the scoring.

John Moloney finished with three catches for 83 yards, along with 11 tackles and a forced fumble for the Cougars. Matt Burnham recovered a pair of fumbles and Trask had an interception.