LIVERMORE FALLS — Austin Henault is known in Spruce Mountain football circles for his ludicrous speed, as the 1980s motion picture line goes.
Apparently that also describes the senior’s penchant for acknowledging the opponent’s big plays with an immediate answer.
Gray-New Gloucester scored two touchdowns Friday night. Henault countered one with an 80-yard kick for a return for a score and needed only two plays to offset the other with a 59-yard touchdown pass from Caulin Parker, sparking Spruce Mountain to a 48-16 Class C South win over previously unbeaten Gray-New Gloucester at Griffin Field.
That catch-and-run along the home sideline was the only offensive touch of the night for Henault, who scored a touchdown in a win over Gray-New Gloucester his freshman year before transferring to Mt. Blue.
“I just run fast and catch the ball when I need to, I guess,” Henault said.
Henault’s first touchdown and Dillon Webster’s two-point conversion tied the game, 8-8, in a first quarter that otherwise saw Spruce Mountain (2-2) run only three plays for nine yards.
“He can be the difference on special teams, and that’s what we needed,” Spruce Mountain coach Walter Polky said. “That’s why they’re called special teams, because you can make special plays. They had momentum. The guys up front blocked it right and he did what Austin does.”
It was the first of four unanswered scores by the Phoenix before Gray-New Gloucester fullback Austin Chase ran for a 4-yard TD and added the two-point rush to make it 32-16 with 8:35 left in the third quarter.
After the ensuing kickoff, Webster ran up the middle for six yards before Parker looked to his right and gave Henault the signal.
“Austin’s fast,” Parker said. “They were covering him one-on-one. I trust him to go get the ball. He’s a big playmaker, especially on the outside.”
One week after Andrew Darling scored all five touchdowns in a 35-34 overtime loss to Cape Elizabeth, Spruce Mountain spread it around the way its triple option is designed.
Darling ran for two scores. Parker and Webster each chalked up one. The Phoenix went 6-for-6 on two-point conversion attempts, five of them Webster bursts up the middle.
Webster led the way with 16 carries for 107 yards. Darling (94 rushing, 25 receiving) and Parker (63 rushing, 85 passing) provided the balance.
“We have a lot of new guys at new positions with Henault, Parker,” Polky said. “Even Drew, he’s not new, but he hasn’t played with these guys. It takes time to gel with the option. Hopefully we get closer as a team and get better as we go along.”
Mistakes prevented the upstart Patriots (3-1) from making a closer game of it. Two touchdowns, a 49-yard throw from Justice Bowie to Zack Haskell (illegal formation) and a 94-yard ramble by Elijah Simmons (personal foul well behind the play) were called back.
Two lost fumbles, recovered by Webster and Ethan Dow, led to three Spruce Mountain scores in a span of 3:09 early in the second quarter.
“I’m happy except for penalties. We hurt ourselves a lot. We took 16 points off the board,” Gray-New Gloucester coach Mark Renna said. “Put those two on the board and it’s 40-32 going into the fourth quarter. I’m not that upset. We’ve got some things to work on now.”
Gray-New Gloucester also lost Chase (21 carries, 91 yards) to an ankle injury after his third-period touchdown, but Simmons (13 for 68) was stellar in relief.
Too little, too late, however, after a Phoenix flourish helped by the turnovers.
Consecutive gains of 25 yards apiece on a run by Webster and a catch by Darling set up a 14-yard Parker rush that put Spruce Mountain ahead to stay with 10:09 to go in the second.
“We worked hard tonight. The line did really well opening holes for the running backs,” Parker said. “Our big players just made the big plays tonight.”
James Ouellette jarred the ball loose on Gray-New Gloucester’s next play, and Webster scooped it up. Ouellette made five tackles for loss in the first half.
Darling was in the end zone two plays later. He caught the conversion pass from Parker for a 24-8 edge.
Dow’s pickup led to the seventh Darling touchdown in 5 ½ quarters with seven minutes left in the half.
“They’re really good. 44 (Chase) and 5 (Haskell), they’re difference-makers. They’re players,” Polky said. “That team right there, they don’t make a lot of mistakes. They make you earn it. That’s why it’s such a big win for us. We needed to beat a team like that.”
Webster tacked on a fourth-quarter touchdown to cap a homecoming win that wasn’t simple as the scoreboard made it look.
“We played the whole way through,” Renna said. “Last year’s Gray-New Gloucester team probably would have packed it in early third quarter.”
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