RUMFORD — Dawson Harrison didn’t play when Waterville and Mountain Valley met in the final game of the regular season.
He was on the field for Friday’s 8-man Large North quarterfinal and his presence made all the difference as the Purple Panthers took down the Falcons 34-22 at Hosmer Field.
Waterville’s senior captain recovered from a back injury that prevented him from playing in last week’s 68-8 loss to Mountain Valley. It’d be easy to say he put the team on his back Friday, rushing 33 times for 280 yards and five touchdowns. But that’s not how he looks at it.
“I don’t put it like that. Yeah, I scored the points, but I can’t do it without my team,” Harrison said. “The line did great. My other running backs, receivers — we can’t do it without the team.”
Waterville coach Isaac LeBlanc said the team’s personnel situation — “We’re still banged up,” he said — meant Harrison was going to play quarterback for the first time Friday. He completed an 11-yard pass to Jared Cayford on the Purple Panthers’ first offensive play, but other than that and another pass attempt late in the first half, it was all runs for Harrison and Waterville’s backs.
“Just running the offense and keeping everyone composed was the biggest thing that we needed from him. And he did that. He was phenomenal tonight,” LeBlanc said. “And our guys blocked hard for him. It was a total team effort tonight.
“Dawson’s going to get the credit, you know, on the stat sheet and all that, and he deserves to get the credit, but a lot of our guys did a lot of gutsy things for us to succeed tonight.”
After a productive first half, Harrison was instrumental early in the third quarter when fifth-seeded Waterville (3-5) began to pull away.
He scored on a 53-yard touchdown run on the third quarter, turning the Purple Panthers’ six-point halftime lead to a 20-8 advantage.
Fourth-seeded Mountain Valley (3-5) fumbled on its first play of second half, then Harrison capped a six-play drive with 27-yard TD run. He also ran in the two-point conversion, and the lead was up to 28-8 with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter.
A forgettable third quarter for the Falcons — whose only full drive of the period ended with a turnover on downs after an incomplete pass on the fifth — was followed by a better fourth quarter.
Kaden Paaso finished off a drive that started in the final minute of the third quarter with a 24-yard touchdown run early in the fourth. A successful two-point conversion run gave Mountain Valley new life, down 28-16 with 9:23 left.
“I’m really proud of the way we rallied,” Falcons coach Patrick Mooney said. “We put ourselves in multiple positions, after being in the hole, to come back and win. We just, we couldn’t close the deal.”
Harrison played a part in that. He carried the ball seven times during the Purple Panthers’ ensuing nine-play drive, including a 3-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 34-16 with 3:26 left.
Paaso ran 52 yards for a touchdown two plays later to make it 34-22, and the Mountain Valley recovered the onside kick. But the Falcons, a run-first team, were forced to pass and only completed one of four attempts on the ensuing drive before turning the ball back over to Waterville.
Harrison earned the clinching first down two plays into the final possession, then followed that with three kneel-downs to secure the victory.
“It was definitely a sigh of relief. I mean, to know that you can just take knees and win the football game, nothing better than that,” Harrison said.
PURPLE PANTHERS POP OUT OF GATE
The Falcons got the ball first and went on a promising drive, but it fizzled out on the 10th play as the Purple Panthers defense held Paaso to a 1-yard run on fourth-and-2 at the Waterville 16.
The Purple Panthers then put together back-to-back scoring drives a week after being held to just one score in last week’s 68-8 loss to Mountain Valley.
Harrison did the scoring both times, first from 59 yards away on Waterville’s fifth offensive play of the game. He then ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
The Purple Panthers’ ensuing kickoff went out of bounds and Mountain Valley elected to have them kick off again. On the second kick, Harrison recovered a muffed return on a squib kick to keep the ball in Waterville’s possession.
Harrison took a fourth-and-2 keeper 46 yards to the end zone, but was stopped short on the conversion run, keeping it a 14-0 score with just under three minutes left in the first.
“I think it was huge for us to jump on them early,” LeBlanc said. “You know, we went down and scored, and then we got the onside (kick), and we went up 14-0. I was like, ‘Man, this is the best-case scenario for us to start the game against Mountain Valley.’ And then I think it just gave our guys a lot of juice to like, ‘Woah, this is happening right now, we got a couple scores on them.’
“And we just played hard and battled the rest of the night with them. You know, ultimately those two scores ended up being the difference.”
Paaso took the Falcons’ second play 48 yards to the end zone, which put him over 1,000 yards rushing for the season. Lineman Wesley Baltrus took a direct snap on the two-point conversion and barreled in to cut the deficit to 14-8 with 2:03 left in the opening quarter.
“He’s an awesome back,” Mooney said of Paaso. “He works so hard. He watches a lot of film. He watches almost as much film as I do. He’s putting in two and a half, three hours a week on his own. Everything, every accolade he’s going to get this, year, he’s earned. He’s a hard worker, he’s a great kid, and we’re sorry to lose him next year, but I’m happy he went out with a great game tonight.”
Paaso finished with 217 yards rushing on 17 carries.
The teams traded punts — including a long one by Mountain Valley that stopped inside the Waterville 10 but was nullified by a penalty — then Waterville went on a long drive that looked destined for another score.
However, the Falcons’ defense stiffened up on the last four plays of the 12-play possession. Julien Byam had back-to-back tackles for loss, Paaso nearly intercepted a pass in the end zone, and Owen Gaudette sacked Harrison for a big loss on fourth down.
The Falcons couldn’t take advantage on the next drive or the one that came after Chance Watson recovered a fumbled Purple Panther punt return. Seneca Jones tossed a 40-yard pass to Byam on the next play, but Mountain Valley wasn’t able to punch the ball in from inside the Waterville 10, and Paaso’s pass to Jones was stopped instantly to close out the first half.
LeBlanc said not allowing Mountain Valley to score at the end of the half was “huge.”
“Because then we went into halftime with a ton of confidence, because it was like we felt like outplayed them in the first half,” he said. “We shut them down at the end, and then we’re like, ‘Let’s go score right off the bat in the third quarter,’ and that’s what we did. We went right down and scored and got up 20-8.
“So it just set the tone. We set the tone right in the start of both halves, so that was really important.”
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