WALES — Matthew Strout threw a 56-yard touchdown pass and Brian Thorpe scored on a 52-yard run in Oak Hill’s season-opening 38-18 victory over Maranacook.
Those two plays and a few others contradict what Raiders coach Stacen Doucette said he was expecting in the 2016 season.
“He said it wasn’t going to happen,” Strout said with a grin.
Oak Hill had five plays go for 20 yards or longer in Saturday’s Class D South matchup. Strout was part of three: a 25-yard run, a 20-yard TD pass to Austin Pierce and the 56-yard pass to Steven Gilbert. The others were a 52-yard run by Brian Thorpe that was the Raiders’ final score and a 28-yard run by Matt Eaton late in the game.
“We do have some kids who have big-play potential, but first downs are OK. But we’ll take them,” Doucette said.
If nothing else, Oak Hill seemed to make a statement that it is still a contender for a state championship, which would be its fourth in a row.
That isn’t the card Doucette is playing, though.
“We like being the underdog,” the Raiders’ fifth-year coach said.
Strout led Oak Hill in rushing with 83 yards on 11 carries. He also completed 4 of 8 passes for 99 yards and three scores. The senior was making his first varsity start at quarterback, having taken over for Dalton Thierren, who led Oak Hill to the past two Class D state championships.
“It went well. I had three touchdown passes. That was a good start,” Strout said.
Strout’s 25-yard run on the game’s opening drive moved the ball to Maranacook’s 3-yard line, setting up a touchdown run by Cruz Poirer. That first drive, which lasted 10 plays, consisted entirely of runs by either Poirer or Strout.
Strout was overthrowing his receivers early in the game, and his first three passes fell incomplete. But he completed four of his final five pass attempts. The last three went for touchdowns, all in the second quarter — an 8-yarder to Darryn Bailey, the 20-yarder to Pierce on fourth-and-11, and the long one to Gilbert.
“Once he gets in a rhythm, I think he’s a very good quarterback,” Gilbert said.
The Raiders led 26-6 at halftime. Strout didn’t attempt a pass in the second half.
“Before this game, he’s only thrown three varsity passes,” Doucette said. “So he needed to get experience. And we’re happy. As the game went on, the adrenaline kind of calmed down — I think once he ran the ball a few times, he calmed down — and I think he had a little more touch on his passes.”
Saturday’s victory wasn’t perfect. Oak Hill’s defense gave up four plays of 20 yards or more, including Drew Davis’ 80-yarder on the Black Bears’ first play from scrimmage.
Davis also had a 24-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. He finished with 144 yards on 16 carries.
“We need to work on our defense,” Strout, who recovered a fumble, said. “They had two or three big, long plays. So we need to work on our defense, obviously, and not give up those big plays.”
Five of the Black Bears’ seven first downs came in the fourth quarter, as they kept battling until the four quarters were up, and despite having about 30 fewer players than Oak Hill.
“I was really impressed with our kids,” Maranacook coach Bill Getty said. “We know it’s ironman football for us, and they stuck it out.”
Oak Hill used a large portion of its larger roster in Saturday’s game; 10 players either carried or caught the ball. The Raiders racked up 397 yards of total offense and allowed 237. They committed only three penalties and didn’t turn the ball over.
So, overall, Doucette was satisfied.
“We did make some mistakes, but I feel like we can correct those,” he said. “We had some new starters out there that (were starting) their first game. And (Maranacook’s) a good football team, they’re very physical in some spots, and that tailback (Davis) is a really good athlete.”
Oak Hill starts the season with three straight home games. Next up is Old Orchard Beach, which will be playing its first game of the season, Saturday, Sept. 10.
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