OLD ORCHARD BEACH — In a game befitting the teams’ high-flying mascots, Spruce Mountain and Old Orchard Beach flew around the field Friday in a Class D South showdown.
When the final whistle blew, the Phoenix rose above the Seagulls for a 33-32 victory.
Spruce Mountain (5-2) did little flying to start the game, and instead grounded itself, with a bad snap going for a loss on its first play, and a bad handoff that became a turnover to start its second drive.
“We got to clean up,” Phoenix coach David Frey said. “A lot of penalties, that hurts. And we had a few key turnovers. That’s stuff we got to clean up because next week we can’t be doing that stuff, especially against Madison.”
The Seagulls (3-4) couldn’t take advantage, punting on their first two drives and throwing incomplete on fourth down on their third drive.
OOB senior QB Dylan Boudreau finally got his team on the board on the first play of the second quarter, keeping the ball himself for an 8-yard touchdown run.
The Phoenix, who hadn’t gained a first down to that point, answered right back when Brandon Frey returned the ensuing kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown to tie the game 6-6.
Boudreau gave the Seagulls the lead back on the next drive, running in from 30 yards out on 4th-and-2. After a Spruce Mountain three-and-out the Seagulls got the ball back at the 50, but Boudreau was intercepted by Logan Smith five plays later.
Brett Frey tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Nick Lombardi on the ensuing drive to cut the deficit to 14-13.
Smith picked off Boudreau to end OOB’s final threat of the first half.
“We had a couple of costly turnovers there when we had momentum,” OOB coach Dean Plante said.
The Phoenix kept momentum going out of halftime, with Frey finding Kayle Stewart for a 13-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to open the third quarter. The Spruce Mountain defense got a big fourth-down stop deep in their own territory, but Frey was sacked in the end zone by Chandler Payea two plays later for a safety.
Boudreau marched his team 48 yards in four plays, with a 40-yard touchdown run on 4th-and-2 capping off the short set of downs for a 24-21 OOB lead.
Frey sandwiched touchdown passes to Lombardi and Brandon Frey around an OOB fumble to re-take the lead at 33-24.
“He’s been throwing the ball well all season really,” Frey said. “He’s smart. Sometimes we called some plays and he changed them. He made his decision. He saw the things, and especially on that touchdown Brandon scored he saw something different than the play we called. That’s leadership right there in itself. Smart thing to do.”
Frey was 10 of 17 passing for 143 yards, with 120 of those coming in the second half.
The teams traded three-and-outs before Boudreau marched the Seagulls down the field again, capping off the drive with his third fourth-down touchdown run, the final one coming from 5 yards out to cut the deficit to 33-30. He kept the ball himself on the two-point conversion to narrow the score to one with 1:57 left.
“Dylan’s our go-to. He’s one of the top backs in Class D and we know that, and everybody knows that,” Plante said. “At the same time, some other kids need to step up and take some pressure off him at times. I think down the stretch we rode him pretty heavy.”
Boudreau finished with 30 runs for 237 yards and completed eight passes for another 111 yards.
The Seagulls tried an onside kick, but it went out of bounds. A second-down run by the Phoenix was coupled with an OOB 15-yard penalty to allow the Phoenix to run just one more play to end the game.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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