Mt. Ararat junior Shea Farrell, shown here running for a big gain against Mountain Valley on Sept. 10, scored five touchdowns Friday night in a 58-32 win over Gray New-Gloucester. Photo provided by Jason Eggleston
When Kaiden Getchell takes the handoff, everything is moving — except, he says, the brain.
“When I run the ball, my brain turns off,” the Mt. Ararat senior running back said. “I just run as hard as I can. I see the hole and I cut up. It’s just what I do.”
Getchell did a lot of that Friday night, rushing for a whopping 274 yards and three touchdowns to help the Eagles steamroll Gray-New Gloucester 58-32 in an eight-man Large School football game.
The Eagles (3-0), the 2019 defending eight-man state champions, have outscored their opponents 136-44 this season.
“It feels amazing to be 3-0,” said Mt. Ararat senior captain Elliot Douglass. “It’s a great feeling.”
Junior Shea Farrell found the end zone in a variety of ways Friday, scoring five — yes, five — touchdowns. He rushed for two touchdowns, returned two kickoffs for scores and added a fumble recovery for a score for good measure.
The latter capped a wild first quarter that saw the Eagles take a commanding 30-0 lead.
“The fumble, I was in the right place at the right time,” Farrell said. “The kickoffs, you could’ve driven trucks through the holes. We just ran what we practiced all week. We ran our plays, and they worked.”
Oh, they most certainly worked.
Mt. Ararat opened up a 16-0 lead before many spectators had settled into the bleachers at its new athletic facility.
Getchell capped an eight-play, 63-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run less than four minutes into the game.
Farrell then recovered a fumble and raced 40 yards for the score on the Patriots’ ensuing possession.
“It just really set the tone for the game,” he said. “We emphasized setting the tone early, and we did just that. We came out of the first quarter, got all our blocks right and got it done.”
Added Mt. Ararat coach Frank True: “We were bigger up front than they were. We had a few wrinkles in our offense and we just had some success with it.”
The Eagles took a 44-8 lead into the half before the Patriots (1-2) made things somewhat interesting when Mikey Ryan and Miles Post rushed for touchdowns in the third to make it a 44-24 game.
The scores prompted True to bring his varsity starters back into the game.
Farrell rushed for a 9-yard score late in the third quarter and then returned a kickoff 66 yards midway through the fourth to help seal it.
“It’s still early on in the season so I don’t want to say anything, but at 3-0, I’m liking where we are,” Getchell said. “I like where we’re at. I really do. At Mt. Ararat, we’re 3-0, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
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