DIXFIELD — Owen Dunn took the first snap of the game 40 yards on a run. He did a lot of that for Maranacook on Friday night.
Dunn scored three touchdowns and ran for more than 200 yards in the first half — and more than 250 in the game — as the No. 5 Black Bears beat No. 2 Dirigo 50-7 in the Eight-man Small School South regional final at Harlow Park.
“(The offensive linemen) were huge. They were huge tonight,” Maranacook coach Jordan DeMillo said. “They were opening up massive holes. And Owen Dun ran hard, as usual. He’s our sophomore. But the line, I mean, Nick Wilson, Wyatt Douin and Dylan Pottle, they just did an excellent job tonight. I mean, you could have parked a Mack truck through some of those holes.”
The Black Bears (5-3) finished with 311 yards rushing on 46 carries as a team. Dunn had 25 carries for 256 yards.
His first touchdown run was from 14 yards out on the third play of the game, capping a personal three-play, 56-yard drive. He had a 47-yard touchdown run later in the first quarter to give Maranacook a 21-0 lead.
A Chris Reid 14-yard touchdown pass to Thomas Struck was sandwiched in between Dunn’s first two TDs. Reid finished with three touchdowns passing and one rushing. Through the air, he was 9 of 14 for 170 yards.
“That’s how much he impacted the game the first time we played these guys (when Reid was out),” DeMillo said. “I came in here and asked (Reid) to lead the offense and neutralize their best player (Trenton Hutchinson), and he did both.”
Hutchinson had six catches for 100 yards, but much of that came on a 57-yard catch-and-run touchdown late in the second quarter when he tiptoed the sideline on his way to the end zone.
The Maranacook defense held Dirigo (7-3) quarterback Charlie Houghton to 3-of-12 passing in the first half. He finished 10 for 24 for 134 yards.
“I will say that tonight was the first time I’ve ever played a safety in eight-man football,” DeMillo said. “I usually play a pretty aggressive four-man front, 4-4. And so to play a safety is a testament to how good (the Cougars) are. I felt like we needed that deep (safety).
“And I told the kids, I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to put you in a position in a defense that I think will rattle them, and if you guys can execute, we’re going to win.’ And it’s on the players. Our players made some unbelievable plays out here. We felt like we had the size advantage and we were able to take advantage of it.”
The Cougars punted on their first six drives of the game, gaining only one first down in the process, before the Houghton-to-Hutchinson connection got Dirigo on the board, and cut Maranacook’s lead to 36-7, in the final minute of the first half.
“We just had no answers tonight. No answers,” Dirigo coach Craig Collins said. “And that’s what happens.”
The Maranacook defense held Dirigo’s offense to minus-32 yards rushing. Some of that was by way of 12 fumbles committed by the Cougars.
The Black Bears led 30-0 after one quarter, with another Reid-to-Struck connection capping off the scoring in the opening quarter.
Dunn ran in from 6 yards out late in the second quarter for his third touchdown run.
“I knew up front how good they were,” Collins said. “And they got guys up front who are seniors, and they got some blocking schemes. We put a 5-1 (defense) in this week, and we haven’t played it all year. We’re not very big, you had to do certain things … and I just give (Maranacook) credit. I give Coach DeMillo all the credit in the world, I wish him well next week (in the state final).”
Reid connected with Seth White from 15 yards out in the third quarter and ran in from 10 yards out in the fourth.
The Black Bears will face either Stearns/Schenck or Dexter in the Eight-Man Small School state championship next Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland.
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