AUBURN — Spaulding got a gift on the first play of the game when it recovered a fumble after kicking the ball of to Edward Little. The Red Raiders, from Rochester, New Hampshire, then took the early extra opportunity and ran with it on their way to a 57-18 victory Friday night.
“I mean, the first play of the game we lost the ball, and that just takes it and says, hey, they’re going to have the first possession of the first half and the first possession of the second half,” Edward Little coach Rick Kramer said. “And that just puts you behind the 8-ball.”
The Red Raiders (1-4) felt comfortable running the ball, mostly out of a double-wing formation, on Edward Little’s (0-5) new turf field. Spaulding’s first 11 plays were all runs, including Zach Lynch’s 11-yard touchdown scamper early in the first quarter that put the Red Raiders up 7-0 after Nate Devine’s first extra point.
“(The double-wing is) hard to replicate in practice. You can show it to them 100 times,” Kramer said. “It’s a good brand of football, if you have kids that’ll buy into it. And (Spaulding head coach Kevin Hebert has) got kids that’ll buy into it. It’s like, ‘This is what we do,’ and the kids will buy into it. Makes it really good for them to do. We thought we had kids that could kind of fight back, and they just dominated us up front.”
The Red Raiders ran 41 times for 483 yards in the game.
Spaulding’s first pass came on its penultimate play of the first quarter, which was incomplete, but on the next play Hunter Trueman took a handoff 32 yards to end the period.
Trueman finished the drive with an 8-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter to give the Red Raiders a 14-0 lead.
“We try to set ourselves up in the run game, as far as trying to make some things happen, make teams defend the field, and tonight we did a nice job up front. I mean, really did a nice job. The ball-carriers hit holes,” Hebert said. “And the game plan for us a lot of times is to eat clock, keep offenses off the field, and obviously tonight we had some success on that side of the ball.”
Edward Little responded with its first scoring drive, capped by Gavin Therriault’s 44-yard catch and run for a touchdown off a pass from Kade Masselli.
Trueman gave the Red Raiders a two-score lead again by finishing off a seven-play, 85-yard drive with a 22-yard touchdown run. Devine’s extra point made it a 21-6 advantage at the midway point of the second quarter.
After a Red Eddies three-and-out, Spaulding needed just two plays to add to its lead, as Trueman rumbled 71 yards for his third touchdown of the period.
Jack Pepin grabbed some momentum right back for Edward Little, returning the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown.
The Red Eddies defense finished the half strong, forcing a fumble and then getting an interception by Bennett DuBois on Spaulding’s final two drives.
“It was big because … we’re struggling on defense,” Kramer said.
Edward Little went into halftime down 28-12 after being outgained 370-126, including 334-36 on the ground.
Lynch (10 yards) and Trueman (13) sandwiched touchdown runs around Pepin’s 7-yard scoring run in a fast-moving third quarter, the end of which Spaulding held a 43-18 lead.
The Red Raiders closed out the win with an 86-yard touchdown run by Hunter Libby and a 5-yard fumble return for a score from Grady Collins. Devine finished 7 for 7 on extra points.
Pepin finished with 74 yards rushing on 11 carries and four catches from Masselli for 42 yards.
“Jack is incredible,” Kramer said. “And we thought we had a great one-two punch when we had (Hunter) Baker come back, and then Baker got hurt (in the second quarter). And he was running the ball so effectively. Just he’s a great running back too. We’ve got probably two of the best backs around, it’s just having two of them healthy at the same time is what we need.”
Baker was hurt in the Red Eddies’ season-opening loss to Noble on Sept. 1.
Trueman led Spaulding with 14 carries for 256 yards.
Edward Little and Spaulding were matching up for the second consecutive season. The Red Raiders won the first meeting 30-6 last year in Rochester.
“Edward Little and us had a great two-year relationship. It was fantastic,” Hebert said. “I think a lot of football coaches will tell you, bye week versus playing a football game in high school, they’ll always do that (play a game). And I think Maine and New Hampshire did a great job, you know, taking those teams, trying to pair them up with similarities and likenesses.
The schools are 80 miles and a 100-minute bus ride apart. Spaulding arrived to Auburn late Friday, but the Red Raiders got off to a good start to grab their first victory of the season — though it won’t count toward their playoff positioning back in New Hampshire.
“For us, I told our guys, ‘If we’re going to play a football game, we’re going to play a football game. We’re going to coach a football game.’ I was definitely proud of the effort,” Hebert said. “Our guys have stubbed their toe a little bit and got some close games back in New Hampshire, so it was nice to see us kind of come out, and especially in the second half, and try to separate a little bit.”
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