LIVERMORE FALLS — Madison/Carrabec gave Spruce Mountain’s defense the head spins on the opening drive of a Class D South football game Friday night.

That was just the beginning of the Phoenix’s (5-3) headaches at Griffin Field.

The Bulldogs (7-1) were equally formidable on defense, and that set the tone for their 44-8 victory over Spruce Mountain.

Madison senior running back Sean Whalen did most of the work on offense, scoring three of his four touchdowns in the first half.

“He’s a senior this year. He was a big part of our offense last year,” Madison coach Scott Franzose said. “He was actually injured his sophomore year. He was part of our split backfield last year. 

 Big part of what we do is pass game and run. He’s really a special athlete. He does a lot of things for us in the pass game and the run game.”

The Bulldogs began their blistering procession from the 40-yard line and double-timed it to the 26, where Evan Bess hooked up with Zach Belanger for a touchdown reception. Whalen’s kick was good and Madison led, 7-0 with 10:15 left in the first quarter.

That’s what we looking to do,” Franzose said. “That’s a tough opponent right there. They are physical. The Frey kid at quarterback and have some althletes that can really push you on the edge.

“So we take nothing for granted, but we had a tough opponent at Oak Hill, a very tough opponent at Mountain Valley — those were two big physical games. They tested us in space. Great work week. The kids stayed focused…and setting tone early. We did that well.”

Every time Madison got the ball in the first half, the Bulldogs scored and were never forced to punt while their defense put the Phoenix’s offense on hold.

Whalen scored on the next three possessions, delivering TDs on 23-, 9- and 23-yard rushes to give the Bulldogs a 25-0 lead. Bess topped of Madison’s comfortable lead when he scored on a 12-yard keeper to hand deliver a 32-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, Madison continued to dominate the game.

Whalen bolted from the 30-yard line for his fourth touchdown and Bess connected with Jacob Meader for a 5-yard TD.

With less than a minute left, the Phoenix finally got on the board when Brett Frey threw 20-yard TD reception to Kayle Stewart.

“They are good — a culmination we didn’t come out and play well and them being very good, it is pretty much the results of the game,” Spruce Mountain coach David Frey said. “We weren’t (fired up) tonight. 

 “That’s the story of the season. We come, we play and sometimes…we had the incident in Freeport. We came out flat, same thing at Orchard Beach, we came out flat.”