AUBURN — Cam Pulkkinen’s interception a minute and a half into the game set the tone for a dominant defensive performance by Oxford Hills in its 43-0 Class A North football win over Edward Little on Friday.

The Vikings (2-1) also recovered two fumbles and shut down the Red Eddies’ (1-2) running game.

“That was part of our game plan, we wanted to get the ball on the ground; we want to be a resilient defense,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Danforth said. “We want to be a opportunistic defense, so that’s like a next part of being a good D is recovering fumbles and causing fumbles … that was really big early on to get the momentum for us.”

Pulkkinen turned his interception into points, scoring on a 7-yard run on the ensuing possession. Riley Perry then recovered an Edward Little fumble at the 9-yard line and took it in for a score.

Early in the second quarter, Jackson Stack recovered a fumble and returned it 22 yards to the Red Eddies’ 10. Oxford Hills quarterback Dylan Truman threw a touchdown pass to Wyatt Grover on the next play to give the Vikings a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Sophomore class providing depth

Oxford Hills’ roster features 15 sophomores on the roster. Danforth said he started to trust the younger players after the Vikings’ season-opening 21-7 loss to Portland. His trust paid off in a 36-0 win over Massabesic last week and again Friday against Edward Little.

Truman, a senior, said he was proud Friday to build a big enough lead that the younger players can sub in and finish the game.

“Our depth is good, the sophomore class is good; offensive line depth is what we’re working on,” Danforth said. “We’re getting some guys down the offensive line, but pretty happy with how things went tonight.”

Sophomore wide receiver Keegan Ridley scored on a 21-yard run and finished with 51 yards. Another sophomore, quarterback Toby Oufiero, ran for 29 yards after taking over for Truman.

“(Ridley’s) still a sophomore; love him,” Truman said. “He’s going to make plays for the next two years, he’s a great kid and he showed off. He’s a good dude.”

Statistical leaders

• Oxford Hills: Cameron Pulkkinen (TD catch; interception), Malaki Sparks (five carries, 46 yards); Keegan Ridley (five carries, 51 yards, 21-yard TD run); Dylan Truman (4 for 6 passing , 52 yards, three touchdowns); Riley Perry (fumble return touchdown).

• Edward Little: Evan Madigan (14 carries, 17 yards); Dawson Breton (six carries, 35 yards).

They said it

• “(Edward Little’s) offense is predicated on one or two or three yards, and they try to lull you to sleep a little bit, and they try to hit a pop pass, so we really worked on that all week long. The guys did a great job executing our plan to try to take that away and option responsibilities and all this stuff.” — Nate Danforth

• “I think the defense just flies around, they’re looking to just play smash-mouth football, make plays and they get it done.” — Dylan Truman

• “We fumbled the ball just about every drive, so I think we only got the one punt off because we would turn it over. Ball protection really was, I think, the key piece of that.” — Edward Little coach Brian Jahna