WALES — Connor Elwell and Brendon Tervo, crunching hits. Brian Thorpe, quarterback sack. Matthew Strout, fumble recovery.

Oak Hill’s defense didn’t stop every big play Saturday afternoon. As has been the case against so many Class D opponents the past three autumns, however, when the Raiders needed one haymaker to end a Dirigo possession in the second half, they found it.

Strout delivered the turnover 11 yards from a potential game-winning touchdown, and the defending state champion Raiders ran out the clock in a 20-14 victory.

“We all just worked as one team, one unit. There’s not a really huge key that we did. We just all got together,” senior center and linebacker Garrett Gile said. “We know we had to make a big play, so we all worked together and got that big play.”

Thorpe’s second sack of the day forced a Dirigo punt that was downed at the 11. Barry Campbell stuffed Cruz Poirier for a 3-yard loss on Oak Hill’s first play, and the Raiders eventually had to kick from deep in their own end. That bid bounced off the side of Dalton Therrien’s foot and put Dirigo in business at the Oak Hill 34.

Putting the game in quarterback Riley Robinson’s hands as they had since falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, the Cougars churned their way to second-and-9 at the 21. Robinson gained the first down off left tackle and saw a seam to the end zone.

He inadvertently ran into his blocker, however, and the ball squirted free. The three closest pursuers were Raiders dressed in camouflage for Military Appreciation Day, and Strout emerged from the bottom of the pile with the ball.

It was a game-saver for a defense that lost three-year starting linebacker Levi Buteau to injury in the second quarter.

“During the second half nobody had any emotion, and that’s all we have,” Thorpe said. “We need emotion to get through to the next play and just to stop them.”

Poirier put it away with consecutive runs of 12, 5 and 8 yards for consecutive first downs to close it out. The sophomore notched 84 of his team-high 98 yards in the second half.

“Cruz is a very talented football player, but he’s young, and he’s not a very big kid,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. “We try to limit his reps, but Levi went down with an injury, and we already have another tailback down with an injury, so it was him. He made the most of it. He kept two hands on the ball and got some yards at the end when it counted.”

Robinson was the foundation for Dirigo’s comeback, as the Cougars’ pistol offense morphed into the tried-and-true single wing.

The senior finished with 25 carries for 109 yards, a number that was whittled down by Oak Hill’s four sacks. He had a 5-yard touchdown in the second quarter and pounced on his own fumble in the end zone after a 7-yard run for another score in the third.

“They were really setting their edge, taking away the outside. They were giving us off tackle, and right now our off tackle play is Riley Robinson,” Dirigo coach Jim Hersom said with a laugh. “He’s a load, right? He’s a good runner. He was good for us.”

Oak Hill (2-0) dominated the first half.

Therrien raced 74 yards to the end zone on the Raiders’ first play from scrimmage. He capped the half with a 42-yard touchdown pass to Jonah Martin, who dodged two would-be tacklers along the home sideline to give Oak Hill a 20-7 lead.

Running and throwing, Therrien was responsible for 158 of Oak Hill’s 198 total yards in the first half.

And there were other big plays. Oak Hill took advantage of a Peter Flaherty sack, a short punt and two Dirigo personal fouls to secure superb field position. Buteau capped it with an 8-yard run for a 14-0 lead with 4:54 to go in the first.

Dirigo (1-1) didn’t register its initial first down until the opening play of the second quarter, but the Cougars built on that with Robinson’s runs of 12 and 14 yards and a 10-yard completion to Gavin Arsenault to set up the first Robinson score.

Such comebacks have been customary between Oak Hill and Dirigo, who have now played 10 times since 2009, with six of the games decided by a touchdown or less.

“Dirigo is a physical, grind-it-out team,” Doucette said. “We knew they would make some adjustments, and they did.”

Mike Casey sacked Therrien to end Oak Hill’s opening march of the second half. Dirigo took over after a punt at the Oak Hill 29, and Robinson called his own number four times to cover the distance.

“We got behind, and the kids showed a lot of heart and character. We moved the ball a little. They’re tough. They’re a good team.” Hersom said. “We’ll get better as we go. I think now we know what we’ve got.”

koakes@sunjournal.com