Siverly golden in 45-14 victory

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BUCKSPORT – Gunner Siverly is a football player. He’s also a track star. And Friday night the senior running back melded the two sports perfectly to spark the Bucksport football team.

Siverly opened the game for the Golden Bucks by returning the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown. He added another score later, and Chris Woodman had three touchdowns as Bucksport rolled to a 45-14 win over the Hampden Academy Broncos at Carmichael Field.

Coming off a disappointing loss to Belfast last week, the Bucks (1-1) were looking to start anew. Siverly’s kickoff return, the first of his career, will certainly help.

“There were just a bunch of purple jerseys and then it was end zone,” Siverly said. “The guys on the kickoff return team are great. … It was the best feeling in the world.”

Hampden coach John Sparacio said the Broncos’ special teams have struggled a bit.

“That’s hurt us the past couple of games,” he said. “We’ve given up half of our points on special teams. If we get that squared away we’ll get much better.”

The Golden Bucks stuck with their ground game and racked up 295 rushing yards. Three Bucks went over the 50-yard mark, with Phil Harvey’s 104 yards on only eight carries leading the way. Woodman had five carries for 76 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Siverly had 78 yards on 11 rushes.

“We saw that we could run the ball and we kept on going with it,” he said. “We have good backs and really good blocking up front. Everything worked.”

Not only did Bucksport score on its first touch of the ball, but the Bucks added another touchdown on their second possession after Paul Mitchell recovered a Hampden fumble at the Broncos’ 30-yard line.

Woodman scored his second touchdown of the game on the first play of the second quarter. Siverly’s second score came on the opening drive of the third quarter.

Kicker Trevor Lalonde was 6-for-6 on extra points and also booted a 25-yard field goal.

Hampden (0-2) managed just 124 rushing yards, but quarterback Andrew Richardson passed for another 71 yards. John Higgins led the Broncos with 76 yards on 24 carries and scored a touchdown, while Justin Preston had 23 yards on five carries and one TD run.

“The line got a good push there,” Sparacio said. “They got some confidence. … [Higgins] could see the holes open up.”

Preston’s score and a Higgins rush for the two-point conversion cut Bucksport’s lead to 21-14 with 6:32 left in the second half, but the Bucks responded by driving from their 33 to the Hampden 2 and capping the drive with a Woodman score.

The Broncos were driving with 30 seconds left in the half but Bucksport’s Marcus Boober intercepted a Richardson pass, putting the Bucks at the H29. Cain’s only completed pass of the day was a 20-yarder to John Harvey to get the team to the H9, setting up Lalonde’s field goal with four seconds left.

GOLDEN BUCKS 45, BRONCOS 14

Hampden (0-2) 0 14 0 0 ? 14

Bucksport (1-1) 14 17 14 0 ? 45

B ? Siverly 83 kickoff return (Lalonde kick)

B ? P. Harvey 9 run (Lalonde kick)

B ? Woodman 8 run (Lalonde kick)

H ? Higgins 3 run (pass failed)

H ? Preston 5 run (Higgins rush)

B ? Woodman 2 run (Lalonde kick)

B ? Lalonde 25 FG

B ? Siverly 5 run (Lalonde kick)

B ? Woodman 51 run (Lalonde kick)

Hampden Bucksport

First downs 9 14

Rushing att.-yards 35-124 39-295

Passing comp.-att. 3-10 1-2

Passing yards 71 20

Total yards 195 315

Punts-avg. 4-32 0-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Intercepted by 2 1

Penalties-yards 11-68 12-73

Rushing

Hampden: Higgins 24-76, Preston 5-23, Richardson 2-1, Tunney 2-8, Bennett 2-16; Bucksport: P. Harvey 8-104, Siverly 11-78, Woodman 5-76, Childress 7-15, Carmichael 1-8, Pelletier 4-7, Cain 1-5, Allen 2-2

Passing

Hampden: Richardson 3-6-1-71, Tunney 0-4-1-0; Bucksport: Cain 1-2-1-20

Receiving

Hampden: Cirrinone 2-66, Tyler 1-5; Bucksport: J. Harvey 1-20

A?350 (est.)