Football: Mt. Ararat runs past Gray-New Gloucester with momentum-changing second quarter

GRAY — Mt. Ararat cranked its offense into a higher gear in second quarter and ran to a 46-12 win over Gray-New Gloucester in 8-man Large South football Friday at Myles Burbank Memorial Field.

After mustering the lone touchdown in the first quarter, Mt. Ararat (3-1) opened the second quarter with a golden scoring chance of first-and-goal at the Gray-New Gloucester 1-yard line.

Shea Farrell blasted into the end zone to kick off a high-scoring period.

“I mean, we were making mistakes in the first (quarter). We knew that we had them in the first, honestly,” Farrell said. “We just had to bring it together as a team and drive the ball, play good D all the way around.”

Miles Post responded for the Patriots (1-3) with an 85-yard kickoff return touchdown. Farrell answered that with a return touchdown of his own, taking the ensuing kickoff back 75 yards and giving the Eagles a 22-6 lead.

“We were hoping to ride the momentum a little bit, and to flip it that quickly — to get high and then get low, and then it’s sort of hard to come back,” Patriots coach Brian Jahna said. “Yeah, that was tough.”

The Eagles began looking ahead to their own kickoff return opportunity soon after Post got the Patriots on the board.

“Everyone was saying, ‘Let’s bring it back right now. Let’s put it back in their end zone,’” Farrell said. “So everyone was hype after that, everyone was ready to get good blocks on the front line. It was a good team effort on that one.”

A penalty negated a Peter Hahesy touchdown run later in the quarter. The Eagles were called for another penalty on the next play, but then Farrell scored again on a 35-yard run.

“He’s the hardest runner that we’ve come across. He’s the most challenging defensive player we’ve come across,” Janha said of Farrell. “He’s fantastic. I mean, he got sick out on the field (in the third quarter), took a couple plays off, and he was right back at it.”

The Patriots fumbled the ball back to Mt. Ararat on the ensuing kickoff, but were able to stop the Eagles on fourth down four plays later.

Gray-New Gloucester moved the ball down to the Eagles’ 40-yard line but ran out of time in the half and trailed 30-6.

EAGLES SCORE FIRST

Mt. Ararat opened the scoring late in the first quarter on Mack Wilkins’ 27-yard touchdown pass to Parker Lohr on fourth-and-2.

“That was actually a new install this week. And we repped it a little bit, and it looked good,” Eagles coach Frank True said. “A lot of teams are keying Shea. And we know that. So we try and use that to our advantage; so we try and run him over there, and they all came up for it. Our quarterback made a nice throw for (the touchdown).”

The Patriots struggled offensively in the first quarter, going three-and-out three times and being stopped by the Eagles on a pair of fourth-down tries.

“Our defense has been playing pretty stout all year,” True said. “Again, it’s the preparation of the players and the execution of our game plan. And each week it changes a lot, depending on who we’re playing. Especially Gray, there are some big guys and some speed. That option, it’s tough to decipher it, and reading keys. But the guys executed well.”

Farrell (4 yards) and Hahesy (8 yards) each added touchdown runs in the third quarter for the Eagles to stretch the lead to 46-6.

Farrell recovered, mentally and physically, after fumbling the ball away early in the third quarter. A cast on his left wrist gave the Patriots a target for stripping the ball away — something Farrell said he tries not to use as an excuse — and after the third-quarter fumble, he came off the field sick but returned for the next series, on which he carried the ball three straight carries and scored a TD.

“You don’t find many as mentally tough as Shea,” True said. “He just blocks it out and plays.”

On the drive ended with Hahesy’s touchdown, Farrell caught a pass from Wilkins for 5 yards, then carried the ball one more time on the next play to finish with 168 yards on 24 carries.

Mt. Ararat outgained Gray-New Gloucester 353-184.

Kain Karp scored from 1 yard out in the fourth quarter for Gray-New Gloucester.

“Hopefully it buys a little momentum (for next week),” Jahna said.

Patriots senior quarterback Mikey Ryan finished 6 for 17 for 37 yards. Junior tight end Nick Geer caught four of those passes for 26 yards. Geer was also active on defense, with multiple tackles-for-loss.