St. Hillaire, Winthrop go against the wind for gold

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FAIRFIELD – Shortly after he woke up on Saturday morning, Winthrop’s Lee St. Hillaire got the kind of news pass-happy high school quarterbacks generally don’t want to hear when they’re preparing for a state championship game.

“At about 8:30 this morning I got a call from some fans who were [in Fairfield] and they said it was whippin’,” St. Hillaire said, six hours later a winning grin pasted on his face.

St. Hillaire could afford to smile: While the weather never broke and the Ramblers mounted their air attack either with or against a field-tilting 25-mph breeze, it didn’t seem to matter very much in a 22-0 whitewashing of Maine Central Institute in the Class C championship game.

The junior QB connected on 14 of 28 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, ran for another score, and helped the Ramblers cap a perfect 12-0 season. MCI of Pittsfield finished 10-2.

“I came out, I threw the ball like I could, and I guess it worked,” St. Hillaire assessed.

It sure did.

The Ramblers spread the field with their potent passing attack and St. Hillaire completed passes to five different receivers – including two second-half TD tosses to Matt Whitehouse – in the win.

Winthrop coach Norm Thombs said the Ramblers only made one concession to the wind: They ran more play-action and threw to the flats when the breeze was in against them, and saved the longer plays designed for the wideouts for the two quarters when the wind favored those passes.

MCI coach Bill Cowan said that on both sides of the ball the Ramblers had an advantage that the Huskies weren’t able to negate.

“Speed,” Cowan said. “They have speed at all the positions, and that was really the key. It’s a great team.”

The Ramblers wasted no time getting the offense rolling, as they marched from their own 47 to the MCI-13 on the game’s first possession before settling for a 30-yard Whitehouse field goal.

The Huskies dug in on defense for the rest of the half and had a chance to claim momentum just before intermission.

MCI got the ball with 1:19 to go, and quarterback Chadd Bennett was sacked at his own 15 yard-line on first down before senior fullback Ben Hall (94 yards, 15 carries) reeled off 19- and 22-yard runs.

After a complete pass and a couple of Winthrop penalties – the big one a pass interference call as time ran out – the Huskies got one shot at the end zone from the W-15.

Bennett rolled left and threw toward Dan Riendeau, who was open in the back of the end zone, but Winthrop’s Jason Childs got a finger on the ball just before it arrived.

That set the tone for the rest of the game, as Winthrop’s vaunted defense effectively shut down MCI the rest of the way, allowing just 34 yards after intermission.

That didn’t surprise Thombs at all.

“I don’t know where we are in the state as far as [teams go], but I’ll tell you one thing: That’s the best defense in the state,” Thombs said. “I’ll put money up against that any day.”

The numbers bear Thombs out.

Winthrop allowed just 22 points all year, and the Ramblers’ varsity defense allowed exactly one touchdown in 12 games.

St. Hillaire gave the Ramblers a cushion they’d never need when he connected with Whitehouse on a 31-yard bomb with 6:46 to go in the third.

The duo hooked up again with 11:47 to go in the fourth on an eight-yard scoring play.

Whitehouse said that despite the windy conditions, the Ramblers never considered altering their wide-open attack.

“We knew they had a tough line, and their linebackers … Mike Susi’s awesome,” Whitehouse said. “We knew we couldn’t run up the middle on ’em. We knew we had to pass, the short stuff, nickel and dime ’em.”

Cowan said the Ramblers were the first team to find a solution for his team’s inside running game.

“There were four or five times [when we were] just running traps where we were one step away [from a big play],” Cowan said. “But they were so fast they’d close it down before we could break it. That’s the first team we’ve played all year that could do that.”

Ramblers 22, Huskies 0

Winthrop (12-0) 3 0 7 12 – 22 MCI (10-2) 0 0 0 0 – 0

W – Whitehouse 30 FG W – Whitehouse 31 pass from St. Hillaire (Whitehouse kick) W – Whitehouse 8 pass from St. Hillaire (kick failed) W – St. Hillaire 1 run (pass failed)

Winthrop MCI

First downs 15 7 Rushing att. – yds 37-88 32-107 Passing cmp. – att. 14-28 1-7 Yards passing 180 13 Total yards 268 120 Intercepted by 2 1 Punts – avg. 3-30.6 6-22.5 Fumbles – lost 2-1 4-2 Penalties – yds 13-100 5-35

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Winthrop: St. Hillaire 7-26, Moody 16-56, Jeffe 6-14, Pierce 7-6, Polky 1- (-8), Mortimer 1- (-6); MCI: Twombly 8-14, Hall 15-94, Riendeau 3-4, Bennett 6 (-11)

PASSING – Winthrop: St. Hillaire 14-28-180-2; MCI: Bennett 1-7-13-1

RECEIVING – Winthrop: Mortimer 4-42, Moody 2-24, Whitehouse 5-78, Polky 1-8, McPherson 2-21; MCI: Twombly 1-13