No news may be good news when it comes to the Mt. Blue Cougars’ running game.
The results of senior running back/linebacker Hazen Pingree’s MRI came back this week and were inconclusive. Pingree injured his right knee in the Cougars’ preseason finale two weeks ago and had to sit out last week’s regular-season opener against Oxford Hills.
The Cougars originally feared there might be a tear, but examination by the school’s training staff and the MRI still haven’t led them to that conclusion.
“They saw something that didn’t look right in the MRI, but it didn’t look like a tear,” head coach Gary Parlin said. “So his parents want to get a second opinion. He’s definitely out a couple of more weeks, no matter what.”
The Cougars moved the ball pretty well on the ground without Pingree in last week’s 28-14 victory over Oxford Hills, gaining 163 yards. The run defense also performed well without Pingree, limiting the Vikings to just 89 rushing yards.
Whether they can keep it up this week against Lewiston is another matter. The Cougars would like to control the ball and keep Lewiston’s explosive running game off the field. Led by junior Jared Turcotte’s 229 yards and three touchdowns, the Blue Devils bulldozed Bangor’s defense for 322 yards in a 20-7 win last week.
“We’ve got a lot of depth,” senior QB Mason Barker said. “We’re working hard to do whatever we can to replace Hazen. It’s hard to do, but we’re doing it.”
In terms of production, Barker came the closest to replacing Pingree last week, gaining a team-high 54 yards on 12 carries. Junior running back Mike Toothaker got the ball in short yardage situations and collected 41 yards on 12 carries with three TDs.
Greyhounds off to the races
In recent years, Lisbon’s backfield has been more prone to feature Clydesdales than Greyhounds.
Running backs of recent vintage like Tony Walker and Joe Schreiber picked up their yardage in three-, four- or five- yard increments. While they were often complemented by breakaway runners like John Tefft, the bread and butter of the Greyhound offense involved handing the ball off to the fullbacks and letting them churn out the yardage.
This year, though, head coach Dick Mynahan has three Greyhounds in Levi Ervin, Dan Willis and and Joe Stevens, and he’s hoping the yardage will come in bigger chunks.
“We’re trying things a little bit different this year,” Mynahan said. “Usually, we’ve been three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust. This year, our emphasis is on putting people in the open field and letting someone like Levi, Joe or Dan put a move on people. And they’ve been doing a pretty good job of that.”
In last week’s 34-0 win over Livermore Falls, Ervin, Stevens and Willis combined for 27 carries. Only 10 went for three yards or less, and two of those were TD plunges by Ervin from two and three yards out. Willis got into the open field and collected 87 of his 122 yards on the day on one run. He also had rushes of 14 and 17 yards. Ervin’s first run of the day was his longest, a 27-yard burst off left tackle.
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