WALES — No mystery, when you’re combining football programs from two neighboring schools, that the first true test of your togetherness is the day fate furnishes a half-dozen chances to fall apart.

Winthrop/Monmouth could have folded Saturday when star running back Zach Glazier’s injured ankle buckled again on his first carry. Or when a fake punt went awry. Or when Oak Hill scored at the end of the first half on a bizarre untimed down. Or when a resurgent, hustling Glazier had the ball stripped from his hands with under two minutes to go.

The Ramblers overcame all that — never mind a brilliant, courageous effort by the host Raiders — to survive, 18-13, in a backyard brawl of the final two undefeated teams in Western Class D.

“Coach (Joel Stoneton) tells us every day to pick your brothers up when they go down, and that’s what we did today,” said junior receiver Mario Meucci, who made a 27-yard touchdown grab in the second quarter.

Senior Jared Hanson was 14-for-17 for 166 yards through the air, completing passes to five different receivers. And it was Glazier who barreled in from six yards out on his fifth and next-to-last carry of the afternoon to give the Ramblers (4-0) the lead for good with 11:32 remaining.

Oak Hill (3-1) drove inside the W/M 30-yard line three times thereafter, the last set up by Kyle Tervo’s strip and recovery of the Glazier bobble at the 1:56 mark.

“I had a touchdown and then I dropped the ball. You can put in the paper that it was the biggest mistake of my life,” Glazier said through a relieved smile. “I was trying to stay in bounds.”

The Raiders converted a fourth down and a third down to stay alive until Brandon Goff knocked down Parker Asselin’s pass to Tervo in the end zone on fourth-and-12 from the 24 in the final minute.

“I thought both teams played until the end. That sums up the game,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “Our motto this year is ‘find a way.’ We almost found a way. We’re going to go back to finding a way on Monday.”

Meucci, Dakota Carter and Goff each had a catch on W/M’s drive to the winning score. Meucci grabbed another one to start the fourth quarter — breaking three tackles to gain 16 yards on third-and-8 from the 22 — and set up the Glazier TD.

Those were the only points of the second half after the teams swapped haymakers early.

Hanson hit Carter for an 11-yard score with 4:12 remaining in the first quarter. In the start of what could have been a costly trend for the Ramblers, the two-point conversion rush failed.

Oak Hill answered with an 11-play, 65-yard drive, capped by Kyle Flaherty’s 6-yard scoring run. Adam Merrill kicked the extra point for a 7-6 Raiders advantage.

Ethan Squires’ interception set up the Hanson-to-Meucci TD to make it 12-7 at 6:19 of the second. Hanson read a Raiders rush and found Meucci alone in the right flat for an easy six.

“We knew they were going to load up on the run and felt that we would be able to throw the ball,” Stoneton said. “We knew they were going to blitz every time like they always do, and that little pop pass that you learn in your backyard helped it out.”

W/M opened the door to the wild ending of the half with the ill-fated fake punt from its own 45. Meucci, the punter, caught the snap and flipped to freshman Brooks Bennett on a reverse.

Bennett appeared to have daylight for the necessary two yards and then some, but safety valve Asselin alertly stayed home and made the tackle shy of the stick.

Asselin went deep 33 yards to Tervo on the next play, and the Raiders were in business. Three plays later, an incomplete pass on second-and-goal stopped the clock with 19 seconds left.

As Oak Hill broke the huddle, Asselin appeared groggy before collapsing onto his back, an apparent aftermath of the hit on the previous play. He jogged to the sideline to sit out one mandatory play, and the officials — mistakenly, having forgotten that the previous play was an incomplete pass — signaled to start the clock.

Backup quarterback Dalton Therrien ran a bootleg to the right, which was stopped in bounds by Squires and Dom Cognata. Time ran out, but the officials conferred and corrected the previous oversight by awarding the Raiders an untimed down.

Asselin returned to the game and scored on an quarterback sneak for a 13-12 halftime lead.

“That was a big play for us,” Doucette said. “The second half we thought we could do some things, and we did do some things, but give them credit.”

“I apologize for losing my cool. I also take responsibility for putting us in that position with the fake punt,” Stoneton said. “They said they had to do another play to keep it fair. A little too late.”

The Ramblers used the turn of events as fuel at halftime.

“Coach got us fired up,” Hanson said. “We were already fired up. We were ready to go after that.”

Jake Weeks carried 18 times for 65 yards in relief of Glazier.

Flaherty rushed for 45 of his team-high 61 yards in the first half for Oak Hill. His usual running mate, Alex Mace, left for precautionary reasons due to a blow to the head after only two carries.

“To come over here and do that and to be the lone team at 4-0, if we continue to take care of business, could put us in a good place come next month,” Stoneton said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link