WALES – Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Oak Hill’s coaching staff doesn’t want anyone wearing a red-white-and-blue uniform to know it, but Saturday’s 7-0 Homecoming victory over Hampden in a cold, windswept rain might have earned the Raiders their third consecutive football playoff berth and first in Eastern Class B.

Sure, there’s a lot of football to be played. In a season where the lines of demarcation between the haves, the might-haves and the have-nots are particularly pronounced, however, the logic appears sound.

“Winslow, Belfast and Brewer have three of the four playoff spots wrapped up, as far as I’m concerned,” said Oak Hill coach Bruce Nicholas. “I didn’t tell the guys this, but for the loser it’s too bad, good season, but you’re probably not going to make it.”

Based on its one-point win over Leavitt three weeks ago and an even grittier performance in the puddles against the Broncos, Oak Hill (3-1) has established its supremacy in the middle of the pack.

The Raiders scored on their third possession of the day after Ryan Gallagher scooped up an errant exchange between Hampden quarterback Bobby Seger and halfback John Higgins and returned it 59 yards to the Broncos’ 8.

A false start penalty on second down pushed Oak Hill back to the 13, but Harrington (19 carries, 63 yards) collected eight yards on an option toss to set the table for his five-yard scoring scamper up the middle with 3:58 left in the first quarter.

“We ran that wishbone formation a lot more this week to try to get Kyle outside and give him fewer carries instead of running up the middle 25 times a game,” Nicholas said. “We’re looking for a quality of carries instead of quantity for him.”

Adam Labbe kicked the extra point, the first of his many contributions. Labbe passed for 43 yards and averaged 35 yards per kick on seven punts, enabling Oak Hill to control the battle for field position throughout the dreary afternoon.

In a cruel twist of fate, the player who turned in the most important play of the game wasn’t around to see the finish. Gallagher was injured when he and Labbe corraled Seger out of bounds with 7:41 left in the third quarter.

Nicholas suspects that Gallagher, who had a hand in eight tackles before he went down, aggravated a shoulder injury sustained in practice during the week. Because the senior guard and defensive end complained of neck pain, he was placed on a backboard and stretcher and transported to the hospital for a precautionary examination.

“He’s the reason we won this game. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Labbe said.

The hits kept coming in Gallagher’s absence, with Labbe, Harrington and Tony Poulin leading the parade. Hampden (3-1) coughed it up eight times, losing three. Jeremy Brewer and Andre Marquis joined Gallagher in recovering fumbles for the Raiders, while Gabe Fontaine and Labbe each picked off a pass in the fourth quarter.

Labbe’s pick with 13 seconds remaining was his first of the season and 18th of his career.

Hampden routed lesser competition by a combined score of 103-14 coming into the game, but the Broncos scratched out only 69 yards against Oak Hill, 11 in the second half. The Raiders weren’t much more explosive, chalking up 97 net yards.

“We knew defense was going to win this game,” said Labbe. “The big question all week was ‘Do we belong?’ That’s what the coaches put on the locker room wall. We proved it today.”

Three of the four teams remaining on Oak Hill’s schedule were winless entering the weekend.

“We might be able to live without Ryan for a week and rest him up,” said Nicholas, whose team travels to Mount Desert Island next Saturday. “Now we just need to take care of business.”

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