TOPSHAM – It’s difficult enough when you’re scuffling like Oxford Hills is to turn bad field position into a positive. But when even good field position starts becoming a negative, it has to seem like the football gods are piling on.

The Vikings had a hard time taking advantage when the field tilted their way in the first half, then imploded when the field tilted Mt. Ararat’s way in the second half and suffered a 33-14 defeat Saturday night.

The omnipresence of the Eagles’ Nick Dempsey didn’t help matters, either. The senior running back/linebacker ran for 70 yards and a touchdown, recovered a fumble and scored a safety on special teams to help his team break open a two-point game in the second half.

The Vikings (0-3) also made things more painful for themselves by letting their mounting frustrations get to them with 114 yards in penalties and some inexcusable mistakes in the second half.

“We’re a much better football team. These kids just have to realize it,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Danforth said. “They’ve got to realize they can play with these teams for four quarters of football.”

The frustration began to build early as the Vikings began their first five drives of the game in Mt. Ararat territory. Four of those times, they either ventured into, or even started in, the red zone, only to stall out or stop themselves with a turnover.

Oxford Hills’ defense performed admirably in the first half, maintaining field position in their favor and collecting interceptions from Josh Straiton and Jake Hall. A blocked punt by Justin Roussel set them up in prime real estate yet again, at the Mt. Ararat 17, and Hall (12 rushes, 73 yards) finally broke the ice when he kept the ball on the option and scurried down the right side for a 15-yard scoring run 50 seconds into the second quarter.

The Eagles (2-1) didn’t even sniff Viking territory until midway through the second quarter, and Roussel and Chris Ney thwarted that foray when they teamed up to sack QB Drew Marshall on 3rd-and-4 at their own 36.

Marshall rallied late in the second quarter with a 45-yard run to push the Eagles to the OH-20. Three plays later, his pass from the five went off the finger tips of fullback Zach Chandler at the one and into the arms of receiver Kurt Yenco in the end zone. Michael Bastin’s kick put Mt. Ararat up, 7-6, at the half.

“We started out a little flat, then we started playing football the way we practice it,” Mt. Ararat coach Mark LaFountain said. “The defense was huge tonight. Our offense was doing nothing early.”

Mt. Ararat’s Mike Rinaldi started the second half with a 41-yard kickoff return, and a late hit by Oxford Hills on the play set the Eagles up at the Vikes’ 11. The defense stiffened, stopping Marshall at the three on a fourth-down run. The Vikings only temporarily avoided a bigger deficit, however, because three plays into their ensuing possession, tailback D.J. Drew either had the ball jarred loose by Ararat’s Tyler Cyr or was attempting an ill-advised lateral at his own 15. Dempsey recovered at the five, then ran it in on the next play to make it 14-6.

The Vikings responded with their best drive of the night, marching 70 yards on 10 plays to a five-yard scoring run from Nate Dubois that pulled them back within two with 5:29 remaining in the third quarter.

But things just unraveled from there for Oxford Hills. Backed up to their own 17 and lined up to punt, they launched a high snap over Hall’s head and into the end zone. Dempsey tackled him as he tried to scramble out for the safety. John Frey returned the ensuing free kick to the OH-42, and a personal foul penalty by the Vikings on the play allowed the Eagles to start at the 22. Three plays later, Marshall bootlegged it in from a yard out.

A Rinaldi interception and another personal foul penalty set up Bastin’s 18-yard field goal that made it 26-12, and Marshall rubbed salt in the wound with a 47-yard punt return for six.