POLAND – Trevor McCutcheon packed a season’s-worth of frustration into his shoulders and used it to run over a couple of potential tacklers and end Gray-New Gloucester’s 2007 football season on a winning note.

McCutcheon’s eight-yard run in overtime gave the Patriots a 12-6 win in a drizzly battle of two winless Campbell Conference teams dubbed “The Battle of Shaker Hill.”

Gray-New Gloucester finished the season 1-8. Poland dropped to 0-9.

“It feels great,” said McCutcheon, a sophomore. “It was great blocking from the offensive line. It just felt great to cross the line.”

The game featured 10 turnovers, including a Poland fumble on the first play of overtime that James Stilphen recovered for the Patriots. An offsides penalty on the Knights before the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage moved them just inside the Poland 8. Gray-New Gloucester then lined up in the power-I and gave the ball to McCutcheon for the game-winner.

Justin Paquet led the Poland defense with five interceptions. McCutcheon and Joey Whitney each picked off a pass for the Patriots.

Taylor Valente scored on an 82-yard run for Gray-New Gloucester with 4:58 left in the first quarter. Poland blocked the extra point, but the G-NG defense seemed determined to make those points stand up. Poland’s offense started with the ball in Patriot territory seven times, four times following Paquet interceptions. The Patriots ‘D’, led by Nick Audet and Lenny Sherwood, turned the Knights back nearly every time.

“They played their hearts out,” Gray-New Gloucester coach Chris Nelson said. “The good thing about that defense is we only have one senior on it. Everybody else is coming back next year, so we put some new schemes in over the last three weeks and now they’re starting to pick it up. It’s showing that what we’re teaching them during practice is working.”

The defense had to break eventually, though, having so little field to defend behind it so often. Paquet’s third pick set the Knights up at the G-NG 24 with 9:14 left. Five plays later, Nick Douglass ran it in from 11 yards out to tie the game, as Paquet’s PAT went wide right.

Another pick by Paquet on the ensuing series gave the ball right back to the Knights in G-NG real estate. A 30-yard completion from Joshua Cooper to Douglass got them down to the 6. The Patriot defense stiffened again and Poland lined up to try a 23-yard field goal to take the lead with 4:23 left, but the snap bounced to the holder, who couldn’t the ball down in time for Paquet to boot it.

The victory was the Patriots’ second straight over their Route 26 rivals and they now lead the brief series between the schools, 2-1. Nelson, in his first year as head coach, hopes it also propels them to bigger and better things next season.

“It’s big for us because it shows these kids that if you keep working for four quarters, you can play,” Nelson said. “I think it’s a good boost for us going into the weight room this offseason.”

“I hope everyone does what they have to do in the offseason, get to the weight room, and do what they have to do to get stronger and better for next year,” McCutcheon said.