No. 2 Deering decks rival Portland
PORTLAND – It only took one play for the Portland High School football team to see what kind of day it was going to be.
The defending state champions fumbled the ball on the first play of the game. It foreshadowed a tough day to come for the Bulldogs, as No. 2 Deering produced its fourth straight shutout with a convincing 33-0 win in the Western Class A semifinal between the two rivals.
“We wanted to get by this game,” said Deering coach Greg Stilphen, whose team lost a 28-21 semifinal heartbreaker to Portland last year on a 93-yard touchdown pass with just over a minute to play. “We haven’t been beyond this game in two years. Now it’s our turn.”
The Rams travel to No. 1 Biddeford next Saturday in a much anticipated regional final, putting two unbeaten teams against each other.
“This is the greatest feeling in the world,” said Deering back Joe Marsh, who had 169 yards rushing on 27 carries and three touchdowns. “Our goal was to win one and move on and take it to Biddeford next week.”
Defensively, the Rams (10-0) made sure of that. Portland (7-3) fumbled away the ball four times, threw two interceptions and had a punt blocked. Portland also was hurt when its back-up punter bobbled the ball twice and was sacked.
“We gave them the football game,” said Portland coach Mike Bailey. “They’re a good football team, but you can’t do that in the playoffs. Special teams always come into play in the playoffs, and that was the case today.”
A fumble and a blocked punt helped put the Rams ahead 13-0 before Portland even mustered more than five yards in total offense. That was all Deering’s defense needed to produce its fifth shutout this year.
“The defense set the tone,” said Stilphen. “We’ve been playing really good defense the last three or four weeks. We’ve been stepping up and playing hard.”
A handoff on the game’s first play was fumbled and recovered by Deering’s Rob Sampson on the 15.
Quarterback Ryan Flaherty later surged into the end zone from the 2 with 8:33 left in the first quarter. Then after Portland was halted on three plays and forced to punt, Mike Joyce got a hand on the kick. Sampson recovered and took it in from the 15 for a 13-0 lead with 6:25 left.
Portland was using its second punter, Ryan Sparks, because Lavon McKoy had an injured hand.
“That was big,” said Stilphen. “We like to block punts anyway. We get after punts all the time. We take pride in blocking punts. Everybody knows when they play us, we’re going to come after the punter.”
Portland produced only three first downs in the opening half and 75 total yards, 30 coming on the last possession of the half.
“We had some things we wanted to do, but we never really got on track to do those things,” said Bailey. “Offensively, we weren’t consistent enough.”
Though Deering didn’t have any sustained drives for scores, the Rams didn’t need any. The early lead forced Portland to throw the ball more often, and the Rams were ready.
“We’re mainly a defensive team,” said Marsh. “If they can’t run against us, they’re going to try to pass, and with our secondary that’s not going to happen. We were just prepared for the pass. We knew they couldn’t run against us.”
Deering took advantage of fumble after a pass completion in the second quarter to take a 19-0 lead into the half.
The Rams recovered on their own 25 and scored in three plays. Marsh scored the first of his three touchdowns, racing in from the 13, dragging a would-be tackler the final few yards.
Marsh added two more touchdowns in the third quarter. After a bobbled snap on a punt produced a sack, Deering took over on its own 36. Marsh scored from the 4 with 7:25 left. Then with 52 seconds left, he ran in from eight yards out, turning another Portland fumble into points.
Deering finished with 259 yards on the ground.
“Offensively, we were just going to run the football,” said Stilphen. “When I look at the weather, I said we’re just going to run the football, and that’s what we did. We did it fairly well.”
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