By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

PORTLAND – It seemed as though every time John Wiechman touched the ball Saturday, something happened.

And that wasn’t usually a good thing as far as the Mt. Blue Cougars were concerned.

The senior running back for Bonny Eagle proved to be a catalyst for the Scots in a convincing 41-13 win over the Cougars. Wiechman finished with 220 yards rushing on 18 carries and two touchdowns to lead the Scots to a second straight Class A state title.

“I’ve seen a lot of college football games over the last four years and I haven’t seen someone that can run like that,” said Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin. “He’s going to make someone a great college football player.”

As the Scots built a 21-7 lead in the first half, the 5-foot-9, 195-pound Wiechman gained 133 yards and proved elusive to the Cougars. Trying to stop the Bonny Eagle offense was difficult enough with quarterback Mike O’Donnell leading a quality passing attack. Wiechman, however, sparked much of what the Scots did in the first half. He had runs of 36, 29, 14, 13 and 11 yards. The Cougars managed to hold him to less than nine yards per carry just twice in the first half.

“We tried to stay in lanes,” said Parlin. “Most runners try to cut back a certain way. We worked on that, but there’s nothing the same with him two runs in a row. He has tremendous vision.”

Wiechman often would find a hole in the line and get through and then break numerous tackles Between his speed, quickness and ability to side-step tacklers, the Cougars struggled to bring him down.. Mt. Blue managed to tackle him for a loss just once the entire game.

“He’s not going to be brought down by one guy,” said Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper. “That’s pretty obvious. You’ve got to get more guys to him. If you don’t get more than one guy, he’s going to break tackles. Then he starts running all over the place and changing directions. That makes it very hard on the defense.”

Wiechman had over 1,600 yards during the regular season and 20 touchdowns. He added scoring runs of 34 yards and 4 yards in the third quarter as the Scots opened a 41-7 lead with three quick strikes in the third quarter.

“The line did an awesome job,” said Wiechman. “I have to give everything I got to the line. They were just amazing. I felt confident it was going to be a good day. They had a great defense. Usually when I get out in the secondary, I’m gone for a touchdown.”

In the first half when Mt. Blue was moving the ball effectively on offense, it needed the defensive stops to keep that momentum going. Wiechman made sure that didn’t happen. The Scots were stopped on their first series and had another ended by an interception. The other three possessions led to scores, all three aided by over 80 yards in rushing by Wiechman.

“They always feed off that,” said Wiechman. “When we have big plays like that, it gets the momentum going and the intensity level just rises.”

O’Donnell had 64 yards passing in the first half and added some nice runs and a pair of touchdowns himself as the Scots gained over 200 yards in the opening half.

“Once we got used to the defense they were running, we knew we could get John going on some of our plays,” said Cooper.

“Then we could mix in everything else, and that makes us tough to defend.”