CAPE ELIZABETH — Given a four-touchdown victory at Cape Elizabeth before the Class C West football season started, Spruce Mountain would have taken it and run for the bus.

Things are different now, though, three weeks after Cape’s classic overtime win at Leavitt and two weeks after star quarterback and defensive back Noah Wolfinger’s season-ending knee injury.

Spruce Mountain had the chance to make a statement Friday night at Hannaford Field. With their 34-6 verdict, the Phoenix sent a message to themselves: We aren’t where we want to be, yet.

“We had our big plays. We didn’t play too fundamentally sound in the second half. Way too many missed tackles,” Spruce Mountain coach Walter Polky said. “Offensely we started to get stuff going and took penalties. We didn’t finish the game the way we should have.”

Bottom line? The Phoenix (4-0) are the lone undefeated team in the Class C division of the Campbell Conference, and they were in control throughout. Cape fell to 2-2.

Every point was scored in the first half.

Peter Theriault got it started with a 57-yard run on Spruce Mountain’s first play from scrimmage. Matt Vigue then spun into the end zone from six yards out.

Theriault amassed 226 total passing and rushing yards. He was 7-for-10 through the air with touchdowns of 29 and 9 yards to junior Andrew Darling, both in the final three minutes of the first half.

“He stepped up for us big time. Andrew ran some good routes,” Theriault said. “Cape lost pretty bad last week (49-7 to Wells), but I knew they’d come back. They were mad about it. Last year we beat them, so that added to it.”

Darling’s sophomore brother, Austin, returned an interception of Jeb Boeschenstein 15 yards for a score with 2:57 remaining in the first quarter. Vigue’s two-point rush made it 14-0.

Cape’s reconfigured offense answered with a solid drive to get back in it with an early second-quarter touchdown.

Boeschenstein found Ethan Murphy for 25 yards, and Nate Weare — who was a starting lineman the first two weeks of the season — ripped off a 13-yard run to set up his own score.

Weare (20 carries, 109 yards) dragged three Phoenix into the end zone. He took on the backfield role of Christian Lavallee, who was a difference-maker in his new role of tight end and defensive end.

“It’s almost like we’re kind of starting over,” Cape coach Aaron Filieo said. “Weare ran a little bit sophomore year. Now that we have a full complement of linemen, we decided he could kind of give us a spark, which he did, but a little too late.”

The Capers’ celebration was short-lived. Deonte Ring ran back the ensuing kickoff 64 yards for a touchdown.

Despite having only two first downs in the game to that point, Spruce Mountain enjoyed a 20-6 cushion.

“It definitely helped. That quickly changed the pace,” Theriault said of the defensive and special teams production.

Spruce had an immediate chance to strike again when James Ouellette recovered a fumble, but the Phoenix gave it back at the Cape 21, where they failed to cover a lateral. Cape’s Max Woods snagged it off the artificial turf.

Dylan Smith and Luke Greenwood combined to stuff Weare on fourth-and-inches at the Spruce Mountain 37. Theriault ran for two first downs before finding Andrew Darling on a post pattern for six.

“They gave us a lot of different looks. It made us have to change a lot of plays at the line,” Theriault said. “They came out good on defense. We just got a lucky a couple of times.”

Theriault hit Darling for 45 yards down the left sideline before throwing in the other direction on their second scoring connection.

“They took advantage of some personnel stuff. We just don’t have a lot of depth in the secondary. They found that and exploited it,” Filieo said. “We made some adjustments, but we didn’t necessarily need it in the second half as far as the passing game goes.”

Vigue rushed for 125 of his 161 yards after intermission.

Ouellette and Caulin Parker each had a second-half sack of Boeschenstein.

Each team had a drive end inside the 20-yard line. Spruce advanced there again but took knees inside the 5 to end the game.

“They played good defense. They changed the lineup a little bit. That’s still a good team over there. They’ve still got a good front. Putting the Lavallee kid at end made a big difference for them,” Polky said. “We need to execute and string plays together at a better rate.”

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