It wasn’t until Tuesday night that Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale/Kents Hill football coach Dave St. Hilaire knew the logistics of the Ramblers’ game against Wells this weekend, and then time and place kept changing throughout the week as Hurricane Lee drew closer.
The uncertainty was fitting, for both teams, as they each enter their Week 3 Class D South matchup not yet fully knowing their respective identities.
“We are really undefined right now,” Wells coach Tim Roche said. “They are great kids who work hard, but we have to see if we have the mental toughness that good teams have. I think we do, and it just needs to come out.”
After opening the season with a 31-0 road win over Oak Hill, the Warriors dropped a home contest against Class C York, 32-14, after leading 14-0 in the first quarter.
For the young Ramblers, who also enter Saturday’s scheduled game at Gardiner Area High School (7 p.m.) with a 1-1 record, finishing games has been a learning process.
They lost their season-opener (played at Lewiston High School as they wait for their new turf field in Winthrop to be ready) against Freeport, 39-33, after rallying to tie the game 33-33.
They then needed a last-second, game-tying touchdown to send last week’s game against Maine Central Institute to overtime, where the Ramblers prevailed 53-47.
While both coaches may be not be completely sure what exactly they have in their own teams, they have made themselves well-versed in who their respective opponents are.
“(The Warriors) run the ball very well and show multiple formations,” St. Hilaire said. “Defensively, they are aggressive and physical. Their inside linebackers may be the strength of their defense.”
St. Hilaire added that the Warriors are “extremely good” at executing Roche’s tried-and-true Wing T offense.
A major part of the success of that attack is having multiple running backs that the defense needs to worry about. The Warriors have that — when healthy, Roche noted. He also said that the Warriors haven’t had their entire starting line healthy yet.
Against Oak Hill, Dominic Carbonneau, Dominic Capello and Dom Buxton combined for 222 yards rushing.
Roche believes that he has an underrated quarterback in senior Brooks Fox, who he said can hit open receivers when Wells turns to the passing game.
The Warriors offense will be put to the test against a Ramblers defensive line that Roche said he likes.
“Big, physical kids, tough to move off the ball,” the longtime coach said.
St. Hilaire noted that he thinks the Ramblers are physical up front, with middle linebacker Cody Cobb possessing sideline-to-sideline athleticism.
That physicality appears on the offensive line, as well. And that group is tasked with blocking for what St. Hilaire called a “hard-running backfield.”
Roche noted that the Ramblers have been scoring a lot of points (averaging 43 per game through the first two contests) and that they are running their offense very well. The Warriors, Roche said, are a fast, strong defensive team, but they will need to be more disciplined than they have been in the first two weeks.
Discipline is also a question mark for the Ramblers, St. Hilaire said.
“We made too many mistakes the first two weeks. For us to be successful versus Wells, we’ll have minimize the mistakes,” he said.
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