FARMINGTON — Winslow built a big lead early and then milked most of the fourth-quarter clock to earn a 28-18 football win over Mt. Blue on Friday.
“I got talking to our kids and was telling them that we’ve worked hard to move the ball and they just took over the game,” Winslow coach Wes Littlefield said. “They really did. We made some adjustments up front and that really worked on that last drive.”
Quarterback Jared Newgard ran for scores on the Black Raiders’ second and third drives as they built a 21-0 lead.
The Cougars (2-2) fought their way out of the deficit, eventually bringing the three-touchdown margin down to three points, 21-18, in the latter half of the third quarter.
Mt. Blue had a chance for more points, and possibly the lead, when Kaleb Hutchinson blocked a Winslow punt, but the Cougars turned it over on downs with 10:15 left in the game, giving the Black Raiders the ball on their own 25-yard line with 10:15 left in the game.
Winslow (3-1) drained most of the remaining time with a 15-play drive that ended in, yes, another Newgard touchdown run, this one from 5 yards out, to push the Black Raiders’ lead to 28-18 with 42 seconds remaining.
Before the drive, Littlefield told the offense to “work the clock, don’t let Mt. Blue have the ball back and score.”
Newgard tried to pump up his teammates for the drive ahead.
“I just told the linemen that if we score on this drive, we win the game,” Newgard said. “I wanted to hype them up.”
The almost 10-minute drive was too much for the Cougars’ defense, which spent a lot of time on the field Friday night trying to slow down the Black Raiders’ option offense.
“I feel like our defense had been on the field a lot tonight, and I think they were kind of worn down,” Mt. Blue coach Matt Friedman said. “They were on the field for three quarters of the game, and they did a great job, but they were a little gassed at the end.”
GROUND RAID
The Black Raiders found openings early and often.
Freshman Liem Fortin scored the first TD on a 52-yard run less than three minutes into the game.
Winslow quickly stopped Mt. Blue’s (2-2) opening drive, then Newgard scored on a 32-yard run with 7:09 left in the first quarter.
The Black Raiders defense forced a punt, then the offense went on a six-play drive that ended with a 2-yard push up the middle by Newgard for another score, giving Winslow a 21-0 lead with 2:59 remaining in the first.
“For us, I think that was huge,” Littlefield said. “To get some points on the board, that’s the key. Jared has been great. He has been our starter since he was a junior and he reads the defense well and has put us in some good situations.”
Mt. Blue finally got on the scoreboard late in the first quarter when quarterback Jayden Meader found Noah Prescott for a 4-yard touchdown pass. The PAT was blocked, but the Cougars’ deficit was cut to 21-6.
Friedman said he needs to help Mt. Blue have stronger starts to games.
“We feel like we are a second-half team,” Friedman said. “What I’d like to do is maybe get better in the first half, but I’ll put that on me. I think we tend to put in adjustments that get us going in the second half, but that’s something we should be able to do from the get go.”
The teams spent much of the second quarter swapping dead-end drives, until Winslow fumbled and the ball was recovered by Mt. Blue on the Black Raiders’ 29-yard line with 2:30 left in the first half.
On the next play, Cowen Young ran for a 29-yard touchdown. The 2-point conversion pass was incomplete but another bite was taken out of the Black Raiders’ lead, which was down to 21-12.
On Winslow’s first drive of the second half ended in another fumble recovered by Mt. Blue. The Cougars offense then went 41 yards on eight plays, the last a 14-yard touchdown pass by Meader to Issac Wrigley in the back corner of the end zone, which pulled the Cougars within three points, 21-18, with about four minutes left in the third.
Littlefield said it was poignant that Wrigley scored an important touchdown in this year’s Winslow-Mt. Blue game.
Pete Bolduc, who was Winslow’s co-coach alongside Littlefield last season, died during the winter. Littlefield said that Wrigley is Bolduc’s cousin.
“This one feels really good,” Littlefield said. “This one’s for Coach.”
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