Mariners’ line fueling rush attack

The running backs and the quarterback get the recognition, but any football coach will tell you a potent offense begins with a formidable line.

En route to their first ever NCAA Division III Tournament appearance, the Maine Maritime Academy Mariners have averaged 42.8 points and 468.8 yards per game.

Their triple option has averaged a nation-leading 416.9 rushing yards per game and has produced 54 rushing touchdowns.

And there is just one senior in the interior line: 6-foot-2, 241-pound right tackle Travis Berube from Eliot and Marshwood High School.

The others are 6-1, 253-pound left tackle Michael Durrell from Livermore, right guard Michael Secord (6-2, 278) from Windham, left guard Andrew McCann (6-1, 253) of Rumford and Mountain Valley High School and center Dan Weamer (5-10, 247) of Stamford, Conn.

Durrell, Weamer and Secord are juniors. McCann is a sophomore.

Bradley’s Travis Shaw (6-3, 267) is a tight end and wide receiver. The senior played at Old Town High School.

“They’re all hard workers and good athletes who have been able to stay focused,” said MMA coach Chris McKenney. “They move off the ball pretty fast.”

He said they not only make their blocks at the line of scrimmage, they also hustle downfield to block linebackers and defensive backs.

“A lot of us have played together for three years now and we work real well together,” said Weamer. “There’s not a lot of stuff to do in Castine so we hang out together and have become real good friends.”

“We practice hard every day,” said Durrell. “All week long, we do repetitions in practice. It gets boring but we get [the job] done on game day.”

Weamer said McKenney’s point of emphasis to his linemen is for them to come off the ball, “low, fast and hard.”

The linemen work together on technique for a half-hour before joining the rest of the offensive unit, Weamer said.

“And we learn what the other people on the line are doing and that helps out a lot,” said Durrell. “When something goes wrong during a game, we keep pushing forward and help each other out.”

“It all comes down to knowing your assignments [and executing],” said Weamer. “Our guards are key because they have to clear out the defensive tackles. If they don’t, it takes the fullback out of the play.”

That fullback is Jim Bower and very few teams have taken him out of the equation as evidenced by his Division III-best 1,467 rushing yards on 231 carries and 20 touchdowns.

When Bower isn’t slamming up the middle or slashing off the guards, quarterback Tyler Angell or halfbacks Nick Bourassa and Todd Murphy are carrying the ball.

Angell (645 yards on 117 carries) will pull the ball out of Bower’s stomach and dash off tackle, cut it outside or slice back against the grain. If he is met at the line of scrimmage, he’ll pitch out to Bourassa (815 yards on 70 carries) or Murphy (517 yards on 59 carries).

“You couldn’t ask for a better set of backs,” said Durrell. “We have good players at every position in the backfield.”

Weamer said the statistics are nice but don’t mean anything to them.

“It’s great to roll up a ton of yards but all we want to do is come out on top,” said Weamer.

They enjoy the triple option and their confidence has elevated through the season.

“If you like to run the ball, it’s an awesome offense,” said Weamer. “We ran a spread offense in high school and that was a totally different system. But I picked it up pretty quick. After awhile, you get used to it.”

“It’s all we know how to do,” said Durrell. “Everybody knows we run the triple option. So it’s up to them to come and stop it. We haven’t found a team that has been able to stop it yet this season.”

Durrell added that to be able to score more than 40 points per game with just one senior on the line is unbelievable.

The players are looking forward to facing Montclair State on Saturday.

“It’s going to be awesome,” said Weamer. “It’s down by my hometown so a lot of people [family and friends] will be going. It’s the first time in MMA history and this gives us a chance to prove ourselves to a lot of people.”

Durrell added, “It’s amazing to win a conference championship and play in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll put it all out on the table. They’re a good team. We’ve watched film on them already. We’ll battle. We’ll go out and do our best.”

EMCC men’s hoops get Rich

After 12 seasons playing professional basketball in South America and in Europe, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native Steven Rich never envisioned starting his transition from player to coach in Maine.

The former University of Miami forward-center is one month into his first season as the men’s basketball coach at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor.

“The economy started going south and teams started skimping on money. I went to three different teams over the course of one season,” said Rich, 37. “After I was injured last December, I decided to start looking for a real job.”

He wound up in Maine because his fiancée is a native of Lamoine and the two of them settled in Ellsworth with their 7-year-old son.

“I knew I always wanted to coach and one day I saw the ad in the paper and decided to apply for it,” Rich said. “I walked in and they had already started practicing Oct. 10.”

Rich has been trying to make up for lost time, familiarizing himself with his 10-player squad and teaching new offensive and defensive systems.

“My systems are guard-oriented with a lot of movement and 3-point shooting opportunities,” Rich explained. “My defensive philosophy, which we haven’t caught onto yet, is to pack it in and make teams beat us from the outside.”

Rich, who started his college career at Wake Forest University before switching to Miami and Big East Conference ball, has altered his system from one employing two solid big men — one the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Rich became quite well-versed with as a player — to fit his current team’s capabilities.

“I’m liking the challenge and I think the kids think I’m a little intense, but sometimes you need that kind of mentality to have success,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight, but we’re definitely getting there.

“The thing that really gets under my skin as a coach now is they’re giving me glimpses of what we can do as a team, but they don’t sustain it.”