WALES – With a revamped offensive line and a featured tailback who hadn’t played football in two years, the Oak Hill offense was a bit of a mystery heading into Saturday’s Pine Tree Conference opener with Old Town.

After the Raiders’ convincing 41-17 victory, coach Bruce Nicholas couldn’t declare the mystery solved, but he did pick up some pretty good clues.

The first clue is that he may have one of the league’s top running backs. Senior Adam Tremblay returned to action after a two-year absence to run for 141 yards and three touchdowns on just eight carries. He also may have a quick defense capable of closing gaps and pressuring quarterbacks. The first string defense stifled Old Town for three quarters, yielding just 55 total yards.

“Emotionally, we were sort of a wreck all week after getting pounded by Lisbon (in their preseason finale), and I wasn’t quite sure how we would come out,” Nicholas said. “But hopefully that’s gone away, and we know how to approach a football game.”

The Raiders came out strong. Joey Gilbert, who collected 182 total yards, returned the opening kickoff 36 yards and into Old Town territory. Tremblay then ran for 33 yards he touched the ball down to the 10 and QB Josh Jillson took it in from there on a bootleg to give Oak Hill a 6-0 lead just three plays in.

Following a three-and-out on their ensuing series and a 27-yard field goal by Old Town’s Jesse Moreau that cut the lead in half, the Raiders scored on four straight possessions to take a 34-3 lead into halftime.

With returns of 36, 26, and 43 yards by Gilbert, Oak Hill’s offense enjoyed terrific starting field position the entire first half (its own 47, on average). That translated into back-to-back 6-yard TD runs by Tremblay behind the left side of the offensive line consisting of junior Dan Bryce and sophomore Drew Jannelle.

“The offensive line did great. Last week against Lisbon was a little shaky, but today they stepped it up big time,” said Tremblay, who decided to forego football the last two years to pursue musical interests.

“I think they’re learning every day. I think we blocked better than we did last week, and we need to block better,” Nicholas said. “They’re learning their assignments. If you’re not sure of your assignments, then you don’t go and attack that (defender). If your assignment is in the back of your mind, then what’s in the front of your mind is driving somebody.”

Gilbert drove the Coyotes’ defense crazy, making a nice leaping catch over a defender on a 26-yard TD pass from Jillson, then breaking a punt return 59 yards to the end zone.

“I was planning to go to the right, but I saw a bunch of guys there, so I cut it back left, and a bunch of my teammates were blocking for me, so that’s the reason that I got in,” Gilbert said.

Tremblay added a 52-yard TD run in the third quarter. He also led a defense that harassed QB Jarrett Lukas (6-for-18, 105 yards, one TD, two INTs), who had Tremblay and cornerback Matt Davis (two sacks) bearing down on him on a regular basis.

“We run a lot of blitzing. It’s a 4-3, but we can blitz the corners, we can blitz the safety,” Nicholas said. “Matty Davis on the backside blitz got a couple of whacks on the quarterback.”

Lukas finally got them across the goal-line against the back-ups with a 34-yard TD pass to Moreau and an impressive 34-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.