READFIELD — Dakota Duplissie was under doctor’s orders to wear a knee brace when he returned for Thursday night’s game against Oak Hill, but the Maranacook senior found it too restricting.

Oak Hill would have preferred he wore it.

The return of unbeaten Maranacook’s top goal-scorer and a smothering defense sparked the Black Bears to an impressive 5-0 victory over the Raiders under the lights Thursday night at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams.

Duplissie, who scored 15 goals through Maranacook’s first five games before missing the last two with a deep bone bruise in his knee, showed no ill effects while scoring once in each half against the Raiders.

“I’ve got to wear a knee brace now, but I didn’t really wear it because it was restricting,” Duplissie said. “Coach wants me to just play. If we get up by a couple of goals, then he’s just going to take me out and ice it so I can make a full recovery for the playoffs.”

“He gathers the ball and we all move off him,” Maranacook coach Don Beckwith said. “He can hit a ball better than anybody. He is special, there’s no question.”

Duplissie showed how special on his two goals, each of which nearly burned a hole in the net.

The first was a rocket to the upper left corner of the goal with 10:26 left in the first half. The second came 6:43 into the second half. He knocked down a Tyler DeAngelis cross from the left side with his chest, then turned and blasted a low line drive past Oak Hill goalie Tyler Pelletier into the lower right corner of the net.

Walker Thompson made it 1-0 Black Bears (7-0-1) when he had a clear look after pouncing on a loose ball from about 60 feet out and lifting it over and to the right of Pelletier.

“I just settled it, had a good first touch, and just shot,” Thompson said.

Oak Hill (3-3-1), which was playing without senior midfielder Ben Daggett, who was away on a college visit, never mounted a consistent attack. Led by Tyler DeAngelis, Maranacook kept the Raiders’ most dangerous player, Jamiel Kidd, in check.

“It makes a huge difference (not having Daggett),” Oak Hill coach Chad Drouin said. “He’s probably our second-most skilled player and on the bench we had limited subs. We had (Kidd) marking Dakota to start to see how that went. Once they score, there’s no point in doing that anymore. We’ve got to score ourselves and get back into it.”

“We have a strong defense,”  Duplissie said. “Zack Elwell, he’s only a sophomore, stepped up. Then we’ve got three seniors in the back for us. We’ve got a good midfield, too.”

Maranacook outshot Oak Hill, 25-6, including 17-2 in the first half. Josh Dugal made it 3-0 late in the first half, and Duplissie would have made it 4-0 just before halftime if not for a terrific diving save by Pelletier.

“They’re deeper (and) a more skilled team,” Drouin said. “What I’m happy about is we came out in the second half, down 3-0, and competed and showed a lot of class.”