POLAND — Three moments summed up the first half Friday night for Poland.

The Knights’ football team found itself in a pretty tight battle with Cape Elizabeth, but a failed possession, a short punt and an injury all proved costly for Poland.

Cape opened the early lead and then broke things open in the second half for a 31-0 victory.

Poland kept the game close in the first half but couldn’t produce the big play to change the momentum. Instead, most of the big plays went against them. The Knights also lost junior back Robbie Porter to an apparent concussion early in the second quarter.

“The defense did a great job,” said Poland coach Ted Tibbetts. “Cape just grounded and grounded and grounded. We had a couple of special teams miscues. The offense just couldn’t seem to fire on all cylinders and that really hurt.”

Poland finished with just 19 total yards. The Knights were plagued by seven fumbles, only one of which was lost. Poland was also sacked numerous times and struggled to get positive yardage at times. The Knights finished with just four total first downs. The longest gain for Poland was a 37-yard run by Adam Mocciola in the first quarter. The next longest was 16 yards by Everett Bertrand in the fourth quarter.

“We could certainly put some people in, but that certainly was not the game plan we were going with all week,” said Tibbetts about losing Porter.

Cape produced 239 yards on the ground and another 113 in the air. It was a pretty solid showing after losing to Leavitt opening night.

“We try to get better every week,” said Cape coach Aaron Filieo. “I thought we played well last week despite some early let downs. We kind of did the same thing tonight. We were a little slow and stalled at times.”

Cape scored on its second possession when Christian Lavallee scored from 12 yards out for a 7-0 lead with 6:38 left in the first.

Cape moved the ball consistently but could not add to its score. The Capers were able to limit what the Knights were doing offensively.

“We were moving the ball,” Filieo said. “We just needed to finish and convert some third downs and some fourth downs. We didn’t turn the ball over. Defensively, we gave up one big play, but I think we locked things down after that.”

Poland struggled with some poor field position in the first half but forced Cape to punt from its own 5. That set the Knights up at the  Cape 42 but hopes to turn that into points failed. Back-to-back losses nixed that drive and forced a punt.

On its next possession, Poland was forced to punt from deep in its own territory. The punt was a short one and returned 20 yards to the 2. Lavallee took it in from there for a 13-0 lead with 2:17 left in the half.

“We definitely tried to play aggressive and have fun out there,” said Filieo, whose team controlled the line of scrimmage for much of the game on both sides of the ball. “I thought we did a good job doing that.”

In the second half, Cape opened the lead. Jack Drinan led the charge, finishing with 105 yards on 18 carries. He scored from the 10 with 11:36 left in the fourth. Nick Moulton added a four-yard run with 6:21 left. Then Drinan finished it off with a 40-yard run with 3:01 remaining.

“We still have to put it together mentally,” said Tibbetts. “Most of it was mental mistakes. Sometimes teams are just too psyched up and can’t settle in and play the game like they’re supposed to.”

kmills@sunjournal.com