LIVERMORE FALLS – In the two weeks since a crushing loss to Old Orchard Beach knocked it off its perch atop the Campbell Conference standings, Winthrop has been determined to prove its ranking among the elite Campbell Conference teams is no fluke.

Friday night at a soupy Griffin Field, the Ramblers may have made their best case yet.

Riley Cobb, Joe Morey and Skyler Whaley combined to rush for 229 yards, and the defense buckled down when needed, to toss its second shutout of the season, a 24-0 blanking of Livermore Falls.

The result allowed the Ramblers (7-1) to keep pace with Boothbay for the best record in Western C and dealt a serious, if not fatal, blow to the postseason prospects for Livermore Falls (4-4).

“It feels so good to bounce back like that and to really prove that we are a good team,” said Winthrop QB Jordan Conant, whose team has outscored Dirigo and Livermore by a combined 54-6 since dropping an 18-6 decision to OOB. “We made a mistake that week, and we didn’t come to play, but we’re a good football team.”

The Ramblers needed a little time to prove how good. The Andies drove into their territory on their first three possessions but were stopped at the 25 on the game-opening drive, the 47 on their second possession and the 14 on the third.

Winthrop wanted to strike quick after Mike Flieschman stopped Livermore Falls QB Kevin Gats for no gain on a 4th-and-3 at the 47 on the second series, so Conant went over the top to Zach Farrington for the game’s first touchdown early in the second quarter.

“Coach just wanted to set the tone for the game, so we did a fade route and me and Zach just connected,” said Conant, who completed 3-of-9 for 88 yards.

“The rain had finally stopped, and we got a dry ball, and we had some momentum, so we just threw one up,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton said. “It was an amazing (throw), amazing catch and great protection up front by the O-line.”

The Ramblers running game and defense took over from there. A fumbled punt set them up at their own 32 with 5:45 to go in the first half. Morey (16 carries, 87 yards), Cobb (13 rushes, 93 yards) and Whaley (10 carries, 49 yards) each got a chance to run the ball and pushed Winthrop into Livermore real estate. Conant hooked up with Jason Raymond on a 25-yard pass on 3rd-and-12 to move the chains, and six plays later, Whaley pounded it in from the 3, then added the two-point conversion, to make it 16-0.

“People think that if they take the passing game away from us that we can’t do anything. The kids take it upon themselves to establish the game, and it’s so helpful to be able to manage the clock when you get a two-possession lead on a team like that,” Stoneton said. “The run game definitely helped us tonight because it kept them off the field.”

Winthrop could have made it a three-possession game before halftime after Jeff Moore literally ripped the ball away from Livermore Falls’ returner on the ensuing kickoff, but a wide-open Farrington slipped and fell down in the middle of the end zone on a 4th-and-4 pass from Conant.

It didn’t matter, though. Morey put the game away with just over seven minutes left on a 45-yard TD run down the left sideline. All that remained was for the defense to preserve the shutout, which it did when it stuffed Gats on two straight runs from the 1-yard line in the waning moments.

“We tried to move people around and confuse them,” Stoneton said. “We’re just starting to play physical defense. That goal-line stand was great. It was so awesome to do that, not just to shut them out, but it was kind of a statement.”