LIVERMORE FALLS – Tough to say for sure if Livermore Falls expected an honest-to-goodness, four-quarter football game from precocious Boothbay on Friday night.
About the time a few fallen Andies watched Seahawks freshman Jason Maddocks tiptoe into the end zone to punctuate a 69-yard run early in the second half, though, the defenders of Griffin Field knew they were in one.
“It kept our defense aggressive and made us pay attention more,” Alex Rose of Livermore Falls said.
That rededication paid off in the form of seven second-half Boothbay fumbles, four recovered by Livermore Falls, who rapidly turned a surprisingly snug opener into a 34-6 rout.
Livermore Falls forced five turnovers in all. Tommy Lee, Jake Richards, Sam Chabot, Gavin Jones and Dillon Newcomb each recovered a fumble.
Those takeaways lit the fuse for an equally balanced offense. Four different Andies visited the end zone.
“We’ve gotten a little bit better every week since our scrimmage,” said Livermore Falls coach Brad Bishop. “We’ve got a lot of new kids playing. It’s good to see. It wasn’t all the same kids all the time.”
Rose, the lone senior in Livermore Falls’ backfield, set the pace with 14 carries for 152 yards, including a 19-yard score.
Fullback is usually the spotlight dancer in the Andies’ tried-and-true Wing-T. Livermore Falls split the carries there. Lee, a junior, lugged 15 times for 73 yards and a TD. Sophomore Brent Buote took 12 handoffs for 61 yards and two scores, each in the second half.
“We’re not hurting there,” said Newcomb, a two-way tackle who anchors an all-senior offensive line with Chabot, Tyler Halliday, Mike Castonguay and Holden Parker. “If anybody gets hurt, somebody else can pick it right back up.”
Alwayne Uter’s 33-yard return of the opening kickoff and a 43-yard scamper by Rose set up Lee’s 1-yard TD plunge at the end of Livermore Falls’ opening drive.
The lead increased to 14-0 after sophomore Nate Hamblin’s first of two pass completions on the night, a 20-yard TD strike to tight end Mike Armstrong with 8:51 remaining in the half. Rose rushed for the two-point conversion.
Livermore Falls lost out on a chance to pad the lead or perhaps put it away when Buote caught Hamblin’s pass over the middle on third-and-goal from the 5. Chad Carroll’s tackle stopped Buote three yards shy of the end zone, and the Andies had no timeouts remaining.
After the break, Boothbay stopped Livermore Falls on downs at the 26 prior to Maddocks’ explosion down the home sideline.
Maddocks finished with 135 of the Seahawks’ 201 total yards on the ground.
“We got it done in the beginning,“ Chabot said. “We lost a little bit of intensity, but in the second half we knew what had to be done.”
Ryan Murphy’s recovery of an errant pitch in the Livermore Falls backfield kept Boothbay’s momentum afloat for another series. But the Seahawks returned the favor with a low snap on a punt, and Jake Simmons’ desperation pass fell incomplete.
Two plays later, Buote slashed up the middle for a 20-yard score.
Turnovers on Boothbay’s next two drives turned into Buote and Rose touchdowns, as well.
“Our key is we had a high pace throughout this week even though it was hot,” Rose said. “We had to keep it up in the second half, because the second half is another game.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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