POLAND — For a building football program, particularly one that starts the season facing the iron of its league, progress comes in dribs and drabs.

In Saturday’s Campbell Conference joust with York, Poland’s drib was an early touchdown to answer York’s initial blow. The drab came in the second half, when the Knights forced the Wildcats to put their starters back into the game after scoring a pair of third quarter touchdowns.

In the end, York had too much to prove coming off a 41-12 loss to Cape Elizabeth, and too much Jared Prugar and Brad Stephens, and emerged a 51-18 victor on a wind-swept Saturday.

Prugar rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns and Stephens tallied 139 yards and two TDs on the ground to lead York (2-1).

“Last week was a wake-up call, I hope,” York coach Randy Small said. “Our intensity was there early, and (Poland scoring early) was good because we came right back and fought it off and shut them down.”

Senior QB Joshua Cooper paced the Knights (0-3) with 129 yards and two TDs rushing despite getting his bell rung and missing most of the first half.

“We challenged them in the second half,” Poland coach Mark Soerhen said. “I told them we can lose with anyone with half effort. What we want from these guys is to see what these guys have inside. The likelihood of us coming back from down 31 points against a good team like York is slim, but we’re going to play like we can.”

York started building the 31-point lead quickly. John Lydston recovered a Poland fumble on the opening drive to set up the Wildcats at their own 42. Eight plays later, Prugar scored from a yard out, then ran in the two-point conversion to make it 8-0.

The Knights needed just one play to respond on their next possession. Cooper faked a handoff, then followed his backs through a hole behind the right side of the line and scampered 78 yards up the middle untouched to make it 8-6.

Small challenged the Wildcats to bounce back quickly and they did, capping their next drive with a 29-yard TD pass from Chris Cole to John McCafferty that made it 14-6. That sparked a run of four touchdowns in a little over eight minutes by the Wildcats, highlighted by scoring runs of eight and 10 yards by Stephens and a 44-yard TD jaunt by Prugar.

 “(When Poland scored early), it kind of hit home
that it wasn’t going to be a cake walk game,” Prugar said. “We’ve been emphasizing
mental toughness and how to come back after quick scores and deal with
the adversity.”

  Poland’s offense, meanwhile, got stuck in reverse, especially after a dazed Cooper went to the sideline after a defensive play late in the first quarter.

Cooper returned for the start of the second half and, helped by a Derek Hanscom interception and Frank Benedict fumble recovery, led the Knights on back-to-back touchdown drives against York’s second string. Hanscom scored first on a 10-yard run, then Cooper followed with a 19-yard TD run that made it 37-18 with 2:03 remaining in the third quarter and forced York’s starters to re-enter.

“It helped having the quarterback back, but that wasn’t just it,” said Soerhen, whose team has faced Cape and Greely and draws unbeaten Mountain Valley next week. “The kids also came out and played harder.” 

York’s first string quickly restored order, driving 52 yards on the next series to an 18-yard Prugar touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. Donald Goodrich capped the scoring with a six-yard run.