BANGOR, Maine — Junior quarterback Austin Spencer passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns and junior middle linebacker Nick Jordan played a starring role on defense as John Bapst pulled away to a 40-0 homecoming victory over Washington Academy of East Machias in an LTC football clash at Cameron Stadium on Saturday night.

John Bapst is now 3-0, while WA dips to 0-3.

John Bapst led just 7-0 at halftime, but Spencer completed a 65-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Catlin just 59 seconds into the third quarter to give the Crusaders a quick dose of momentum.

A 29-yard punt return by Jake Moore set up a 43-yard scoring run by Brad DeCesere on John Bapst’s next possession, and another 29-yard punt return, this time by Spencer, led to a 14-yard scoring pass from Spencer to Catlin that gave coach Dan O’Connell’s club a 27-0 lead with 3:38 left in the third period.

John Bapst added a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 10-yard run by Shawn Curran and a 25-yard pass from freshman Spencer Barron to Austin Cyr.

Jordan had two quarterback sacks and a host of other tackles for a John Bapst defense that yielded 165 total yards but did not allow Washington Academy inside the Crusaders’ 45-yard line.

Spencer completed 9 of 17 passes, while DeCesere rushed for 66 yards as John Bapst amassed 361 yards of total offense.

But yardage didn’t come easily for the Crusaders early in the contest, as a Washington Academy defense led by tackle Nick Burrill and end Tehon Fox gave up yardage grudgingly in the first half and twice stopped John Bapst inside the Raiders’ 20-yard line.

But finally an exchange of pass interceptions, the first by WA’s Ellic Smith and the second by Moore, gave John Bapst the ball at the Raiders’ 13 with 4:01 left in the first half. Two plays later DeCesere scored from 5 yards out on a counter play and Patrick Leonard followed with the extra-point kick to give the Crusaders a 7-0 lead.

Smith rushed for 61 yards on 12 carries for WA while junior quarterback Fred MacLean completed 5 of 12 passes for 77 yards, with all of the completions going to senior tight end Andrew Farnsworth.

Washington Academy (0-3) 0 0 0 0 – 0

John Bapst (3-0) 0 7 20 13 – 40

2nd-JB- DeCesere 6 yd run (Leonard kick)

3rd-JB- 65 yd pass from Spencer to Catlin (Kick no good)

3rd-JB- DeCesere 43 Yd run (Leonard kick)

3rd-JB- 15 yd pass from Spencer to Catlin (Leonard kick)

4th-JB- Curran 10 yd run (Leonard kick)

4th-JB- 25 yd pass from Curran to Cyr (Kick no good)