PITTSFIELD, Maine — It has been a long quest to get back to the Class D football state championship game for Maine Central Institute.
So when the Huskies got the ball on their own 43-yard line with 22.4 seconds left in the first half, they weren’t about to take a knee.
Greg Vigue hooked up with Josh Buker on a 24-yard touchdown pass as time expired, putting an exclamation point on the half en route to a 45-0 victory over Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln on Friday night in the Class D North/LTC title game at Alumni Field.
“Last year, this game was our goal, we wanted a chance to get to the state game,” said MCI coach Tom Bertrand. “This year, we want the gold ball. We wanted to get this done.”
MCI (10-0) plays the Oak Hill-Lisbon winner from the South final in next Friday’s state game at the University of Maine in Orono.
It was another dominating performance for top-seeded MCI, which had beaten coach Pat House’s No. 2 Lynx (7-3) 61-0 in September.
Senior quarterback Vigue said the late drive was a chance to work on a situation the Huskies seldom face.
“We know going forward there might be a time where we have very little time and we have to score, so we had to prepare for that,” Vigue said.
MCI held the Lynx to minus-7 yards of offense behind defensive standouts in linebackers Brandon McKenna and Eli Bussell and end Aaron Noonan.
The Huskies’ offensive production forced running time for the second half. Their success was facilitated by the offensive line made up of Mike Steeves, Alex Jones, Curtis McLeod, Elijah Harvey, Mike Westgate and Dillon Fitts.
“MA was loading the box and putting more guys on the line than we had, yet we were still able to handle it,” Vigue said. “It doesn’t happen without the big boys up front.”
The primary beneficiary was junior tailback Willie Moss, who rolled up 162 yards on 16 carries, including TD runs of 10, 24 and 2 yards. Fullback Alex Bertrand pounded his way to 24 yards on six attempts with a 1-yard TD.
Vigue went 6-for-10 passing for 124 yards.
“My O-line is just great,” Moss said. “They really provided the heart of our offense.”
The hosts broke a scoreless tie with 3:10 left in the first quarter as Moss’ 42-yard dash set up his 10-yard TD run. Devon Varney added the PAT.
Mattanawcook might have gained some momentum when Scott Jipson motored down the sideline with the ensuing kickoff. His 73-yard jaunt was halted by Buker’s saving tackle.
The Lynx then failed to score.
MCI responded with a 78-yard drive that included Vigue’s 20-yard pass to Bussell on a fake punt. Moss took a toss to the left and raced 32 yards for a TD to make it 14-0.
The Huskies scored three more times in the last seven minutes of the half, with a Vigue pass figuring prominently in each, to pull away.