READFIELD — In the space of Friday night’s second half at Ricky Gibson Field of Dreams, Poland grew from the team dubious for scaring the daylights out of Western Class C playoff teams to the gang that knocked one of those elites on its fanny.
Tyler Sturtevant and Everett Bertrand’s combined three long touchdown runs and the Knights’ inspired defense spelled out a rainy 27-8 rout of playoff-bound Maranacook, capping a second straight season of Poland near misses ending on an emotional mountaintop.
“It meant everything. It meant the season to us honestly,” said Sturtevant, who rushed for 166 yards, including scores of 27 and 20. “We saw the chance and we knew that was it. Everybody pulled together. We finally showed that we’re the team that we could have been all season.”
Poland (2-6) is one of the few teams in the state other than the three eventual champions that gets to walk away from its final game a winner. The Knights did it a year ago, as well, upsetting Winslow at home to finish at .500 for the first time ever.
This fall, they’ll send Maranacook (5-3) down to Traip Academy in Kittery for next week’s quarterfinals in the depths of a three-game losing skid.
“Our record doesn’t show what we’re capable of,” Poland quarterback and defensive back Tony Whalen said. “We’re a 2-6 team at a 6-2 level, three or four plays away.”
Whalen commanded Poland’s potent triple option and also added an interception and a fumble recovery for the defense, which held Maranacook to a net minus-20 yards in the third quarter while the Knights transformed an 8-6 deficit into a 21-8 advantage.
Sturtevant’s runs of 21 and 31 yards set up his go-ahead, 20-yard touchdown scamper on fourth-and-17 with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter.
The senior fullback made cuts on the muddy, chewed-up turf that looked like indoor, controlled-climate, level-surface moves.
“He’s worked incredibly hard. He does everything from the speed training to lifting to a nutritionist,” Poland coach Ted Tibbetts said of Sturtevant. “He does everything he possibly can to make himself better.”
After Poland backed Maranacook into fourth-and-40 late in the third, Whalen recovered an errant snap to punter Andrew Lachance at the Maranacook 7.
Whalen was in the end zone two plays later. He also kicked the extra point with 11 seconds left in the quarter.
“We’ve been playing in weather like this all season. The last couple practices have been all mud,” Sturtevant said. “We’ve just been working. No matter the conditions, we give it everything we’ve got to get ready for it.”
Bertrand applied the exclamation point with a 65-yard scoring scamper on Poland’s first play from scrimmage in the fourth.
The game was called after a flash of lightning with just over two minutes left.
Sturtevant and Bertrand (four carries, 125 yards) headlined an offense that was plagued by giveaways in close losses to some of the conference’s top teams — Dirigo, Oak Hill, Winslow and Old Orchard Beach.
“As we’ve been telling the kids all year, you just have to put things together,” Tibbetts said. “You don’t have to do things over-the-top. You just have to do your jobs. On a really messy night we took care of the football for the most part, and that was the key.”
Maranacook scored first on a 57-yard strike from Caleb Castonguay to Lachance in the first quarter. Jesse Evans rushed for the two-point conversion.
The Black Bears drove 19 plays on a series that took up more than half the second period, only to come up empty when Nick Cote picked off Castonguay inside the 10.
Poland stopped another drive deep in its own territory prior to a 74-yard march to end the half, capped by Sturtevant’s 27-yard jaunt — in what would become his calling card, on fourth-and-long — with nine seconds left.
“I think our defense was playing great all year long. When they shut them down like that, it gives our offense momentum,” Sturtevant said. “Our defense did great today. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Poland held Maranacook to 3-for-19 passing. The Black Bears also lost Castonguay when he was ejected for a clash with Tanner Marston late in the game, making the captain ineligible for next week’s playoff.
koakes@sunjournal.com
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