AUGUSTA — Lewiston identified at least one way to keep Cony’s all-purpose quarterback, Luke Duncklee, from inflicting much damage Saturday night: Keep him off Alumni Field.
The Blue Devils quickly figured out how to accomplish that, too: Give the ball to Joe McKinnon.
McKinnon rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. Perhaps most importantly, the junior fullback led the Devils to a staggering early advantage in time of possession, setting the tone for a 28-0 Pine Tree Conference Class A victory.
“Joe is really a prototypical Wing-T fullback. He looks like a tailback in any other offense,” said Lewiston coach Bill County. “We don’t do a lot of lead blocking with him. When he does carry the ball, he’s got great speed.”
McKinnon hammered out TD runs of 5 and 33 yards for Lewiston (6-1). He carried 16 times in the first half, alone.
To put that in perspective, Cony (3-4) took only 19 total snaps before the break. Lewiston? Forty-one.
“They ran the ball extremely well and kept the ball out of our hands,” said Cony coach Robbie Vachon. “We didn’t do a very good job stopping the run, and hence, the score. We called a few of their plays from the sideline. We had an idea what to do. We just couldn’t stop them.”
And after Cony stopped the grind-it-out bleeding and summoned a prolonged series or two of its own in the second half, Lewiston landed two fourth-quarter knockout punches from long range.
Jeff Keene raced 55 yards to the end zone with 8:13 left. Later, Matt Therrien, already with an 81-yard interception return to his credit, scored from 47 yards.
Ben Wigant led Lewiston’s offensive line, with David Demers, Ryan Dubois, Eliot Chicoine and Rudy Pandora also getting in their licks.
“I was just going up the middle with some great blocks from my linemen,” McKinnon said. “The field was slippery, and there were kids falling everywhere. Once I got in the open field I saw the end zone.”
“The second half was phenomenal,” added Keene. “Ben Wigant is just absolutely terrific. He blocks every single play.”
McKinnon finished with a game-high 155 yards. Keene had 99 of his 135 yards in the second half.
Lewiston accumulated all but five of its 398 total yards on the ground, a surface still saturated from the rains that forced Friday‘s postponement.
“It was a good day to play Lewiston football. It was little muddy, a little mucky,” said County. “We tried a couple of different things to open up, and it was very tough to throw in this mud.”
Duncklee was 12-for-29 through the air for 134 yards.
Cony made one foray inside the 10-yard line, but Therrien stepped in front of Nick Lucas in the end zone and nearly went the distance with his return.
Wigant and Pandora shadowed Duncklee in the running game, containing him to 25 carries for 133 yards.
Prior to three straight carries by James Fongemie on the Rams’ final drive of the night, Cony ran only one play that was not either a pass or run by Duncklee.
“We knew he has an arm. And we know he’s one of the top rushers in the conference,” Keene said. “So basically we just keyed down on him because they don’t have anybody else who are rushers, and we laid the smack down. That was a huge statement win right there. Totally different than last week. We just put it behind us and got the next one.”
Lewiston suffered its initial loss last week, 25-6 to Lawrence, after trailing by only a point at the half.
“We had to rebound. I didn’t feel like we played extremely poorly last week when I watched the film, but we made some big mistakes,” County said. “Cony’s a pretty good football team, and I think we were both playing for a home playoff spot.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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