KITTERY — Quarterback Riley Robinson threw for touchdown and ran for two touchdowns as the Cougars reached in to their bag of tricks en route to a 28-8 triumph against Traip Academy in a Class D football game at Memorial Field on Saturday afternoon

The long trek down I-95 was certainly worth it.

Dirigo (4-2), which has won three straight, scored on its first three possessions in the first half, including a Luke Lueders 11-yard TD on a reverse for the eventual winning points one minute and 13 seconds into the second quarter. Robinson had a block on the corner as Lueders sprinted to the left pylon.

“It took a while to get going,” Dirigo coach Jim Hersom said. “It’s a long bus ride down here. We didn’t want to just show up. I thought the kids gave a good effort and we was able to get things done.”

On the ensuing possession, Dirigo linebacker Barry Campbell intercepted Traip QB Angelo Succi to set the Cougars up in Ranger territory. A run by Cooper Chiassion (45 yards, six rushes) set the ball in the red zone. On third and 10, Robin passed to Gus Brown, who had beat the corner back for a 21-yard TD. Gavin Arsenault caught the conversion pass.

The Dirigo defense had held the Traip offense to two three and outs and was gang tackling. The Rangers’ Evan Porter (43 yards, nine rushes) picked up two first downs and had the ball in Cougar territory. The drive ended on back-to-back sacks by Chiasson and Bryce Whittemore.

“A key on defense for us was getting every one going to the ball,” Whittemore said. “We forced those three and outs and then had the interception.”

Dirigo took over and started driving the ball. Robinson completed the six-play drive by going around the outside and studder-stepped to freeze the Traip corner for a 26-yard TD. The Cougars led 20-0 at halftime.

“We came down with the mindset to do some thing,” said Robinson, who completed 6 of 7 passes for 61 yards, and rushed for 71 on the ground. “We were able to run off-tackle and the blocking was excellent. We had a new guy Barry (Campbell) at tackle. The rest of the line tackles Quentin Penley and Issac White, guards Bennett Dorion and Whittemore and center Dalton Berry, have continued to do a great job.”

Robinson had a 100-yard TD run in first quarter.

Traip (1-4) tried shaking things up by trying an onside kick to open the second half, but Dirigo recovered it. The Rangers had 135 yards rushing and 2 of 11 on third down conversions.

Dirigo played its reserves the entire second half. Cam Turner was 1 of 3 for5 yards

A sore spot was the Cougars 6 penalties in the first half.

“We had a lot of them,” Hersom said. “I thought that we cleared them up in the  second half. But, stems from a lack of focus and concentration. We need to clean it up.”

Traip scored on a 27-yard run and a conversion by David Gibson with 2:56 left to play.

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