Despite injury to knee, Guthrie rallied Lions

LEWISTON – The Wells players recognized that look on the Belfast players’ faces at the end of Tuesday’s Class B state championship game.

The Warriors had worn those same pained expressions just one year ago after being edged 35-34 in the Western Maine final.

“We know what it’s like to lose games like these,” said Wells tailback back-linebacker Sean Terry. “They’re a heck of a team. I’ll tell you, those guys just wouldn’t give up.”

Tuesday’s 32-30 thriller won by Wells was almost a microcosm of Belfast’s entire season.

The Lions got off to a slow start, stopped their slide, and overcame adversity and injuries to explode down the stretch, only to be stopped just short of their ultimate goal.

“Yeah, this game was a lot like our season,” said Belfast coach Butch Arthers. “We went 0-3 and it would have been very easy for them to cash it in and say that’s the end of it, but they just kept fighting.”

Just like they did on Tuesday.

It was a disappointing end for senior quarterback Sazi Guthrie, who rushed for 639 total yards entering the game. He was limited to playing only on offense after sustaining a tear to his knee ligament early in the game.

“That really hurt us. Sazi wasn’t able to maneuver like he normally can and we couldn’t use him as a runner,” said Arthers. “He had no stability on his knee at all.”

Against Arthers’ better judgment, he allowed Guthrie, who also plays defensive back, to continue playing – but only on offense.

Guthrie’s loss took the Lions out of synch a bit defensively, but he made up for it on offense.

Even hobbled, Guthrie almost brought his Lions back from a 20-0 deficit, completing five of 18 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown without being intercepted.

“We fought back after a tough start,” said Guthrie. “I think we could have pulled it out, but some things happened that we didn’t respond well to and we got down big.

“We gave up early touchdowns our last two games to Winslow and Old Town and came back to win, but this time we got down by too much.”

It was a bittersweet end for Arthers.

“We thought this might be a Cinderella story for us,” he said. “I have mixed emotions about this game: I’m just so proud of our kids making it to this point, but it’s disappointing to lose the game.”

Guthrie has resisted the Cinderella team label.

“People called us Cinderella because we were 6-5, but we feel like we were really a very good team,” said Guthrie. “We had just as much talent as anyone else, we just finally started to play at the end of the year.”