The Raiders don’t look past anyone, least of all Maranacook.
That was bad news for the young Black Bears, who didn’t have an answer for Oak Hill’s balanced offense or stout defense as the Raiders cruised to a 38-0 win on Saturday.
“It feels awesome beating Maranacook,” said senior two-way lineman Bayley Beaulieu, who led an offensive line that paved the way for 379 total yards and a defensive front that held the Bears to just 65 yards before the starters left the game late in the third quarter.
“I think the key for us was that we work together,” Beaulieu said. “We didn’t separate at all. We stayed together as a team.”
Alex Mace totaled 225 yards on offense and scored two touchdowns for the Raiders. Kyle Flaherty rushed for 77 yards and scored three times. QB Parker Asselin was perfect, completing all seven of his passing attempts for 174 yards and a touchdown.
“It’s exactly what you expect from a four-year starter, decision making and running the offense,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said of Asselin. “Parker called probably 90 percent of the plays today. He put us in good situations.”
The Raiders’ defense also put them in good field position, limiting the Black Bears to just three first downs, all in the first half. The deepest Maranacook (1-2) drive, to the Oak Hill 30, came on the game’s first series. Oak Hill linebacker Garrett Gile took care of that by sacking Maranacook sophomore Kyle Morand for an 11-yard loss.
“I thought we played well (on defense). Our philosophy was bend not break,” Doucette said. “We’ve got players in new positions, new people starting due to injuries, so we’ve just got to find a way.”
“We work hard in practice every day and we have big guys that stuff the middle and athletes on the outside,” Flaherty said.
Oak Hill (3-0) had more success on its opening drive, thanks to a conversion on 3rd-and-14 where Asselin connected with Mace (3 catches, 114 yards) for 26 yards. Two plays later, Mace (11 rushes, 103 yards) sliced through the right side of Maranacook’s defense on a 30-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead.
Flaherty made his first foray into the end zone on the Raiders’ next possession, scoring from seven yards out. Asselin’s two-point pass to Kyle Tervo made it 14-0.
“Oak Hill is a good team. Stacen had a good game plan,” Maranacook coach Joe Emery said. “We’re relatively young. We didn’t adjust as quickly as we should have. They have a lot of speed and when we lost Logan (Emery) on defense, we lost our outside linebacker who can stop everything. We played a lot better defense our first two games.”
The Raiders widened their lead to 20-0 before halftime when Asselin found Mace on a go route down the right sideline, hitting the speedy running back in stride so he could race 79 yards virtually untouched to paydirt.
“That was a perfect pass from Parker. I couldn’t have asked for a better pass,” Mace said. “The line held them up just long enough and Parker made that perfect pass.”
Flaherty added touchdown runs of 11 and 10 yards in the third quarter. Brian Thorpe had a seven-yard run to cap the scoring.
Oak Hill hosts Winthrop/Monmouth next week in a game between the only two undefeated teams in Class D West.
“This year, every week in this conference is a big game,” Doucette said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story