WALES — Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale players and their head coach were surprised just how far Oak Hill has come since its first game of the season.
The Raiders proved to be a stubborn and determined bunch even though the Ramblers were also tenacious in their 57-26 Class D victory on a bright Saturday afternoon at Stacen Doucette Memorial Field.
“They got way better; we were not expecting this,” Ramblers running back Dominic Trott said. “They came out and executed well. They hung in there in the second half.”
The teams traded touchdown after touchdown with each other the entire game.
The Ramblers (5-2) began the first quarter with unrelenting drives to score three touchdowns.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve run the ball up and down the field. We moved it on offense, but then we shoot ourselves in the foot,” Ramblers coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “I don’t think we missed a lot of offensive assignments. What we put out there for the kids offensively for the game plan this week, they executed it well.”
Senior Robby Feeney delivered the Ramblers’ first blow when he scored from the 4-yard line 2:46 into the game. The Rambler collected another TD later when Feeney ran 74 yards for his second touchdown.
“I liked our blocking,” Ramblers sophomore running back Carter Rivers said. “Last week, our blocking was probably our weak spot. We knew just coming into this game we knew we had to step it up.”
The Raiders (2-5) answered with their first touchdown when Hunter Drew broke away at the Oak Hill 40 for a 60-yard TD to make it a 14-6 game after the conversion failed.
“I didn’t expect the (Raiders) to get those four long plays on us,” Rivers said.
Winthrop’s Feeney was credited with his third TD after scoring on a 26-yard rush. The kick failed, but the Ramblers were in command with a 20-6 lead heading into the second half.
Rivers supplied back-to-back touchdowns on 4- and 16-yard rushes, with Isaac Oliveria kicking both extra points to make it 34-20 going into the half.
The Raiders also delivered on offense in that wild second quarter, with Drew scoring on a 26-yard dash and quarterback Scott Cooper connecting with Swan for another TD.
The second half was the same as the first half, with both teams coming across the end zone with one touchdown a piece.
Trott scored on a 2-yard rush and Owen Harding found Brayden Stubbert for the conversion pass late in the third quarter.
“The team effort was awesome,” Trott said. “We made some mistakes, we missed some blocks, but we never gave up. We put that effort in. That is all we can do. We didn’t lose our morale. We just kept going, having fun.”
Oak Hill snuck in its last touchdown with 51.1 seconds left in the third quarter, with Kaiden Delano scoring from the 5 before the conversion failed to make it a 42-26.
“We have really come a long way,” Oak Hill coach Chad Stowell said. “We went up to Hermon and played a very tough Class C school. It was a 6-0 game going into the fourth quarter. This is an experienced group that has been around a lot in Winthrop and we knew this was going to be a battle.
“We talked about it being a fight and how many times we could get off the mat — and we did.”
The Ramblers topped off their scoring with two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Trott slipped into the end zone on 8-yard rush and Quade Black came across on a 5-yard TD for the last of Winthrop’s 57 points.
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