Broncos use strong 2nd half to top MDI

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HAMPDEN – In dropping two straight games after a three wins in a row, the Hampden football team knew it needed a spark.

Friday night’s game against Mount Desert Island should have been a good way to turn around the season. It was homecoming, after all, and head coach John Sparacio was back after missing two games due to heart problems.

But things didn’t start out so smoothly against the winless Trojans.

“We’ve had an off-week for the last three weeks,” said Hampden senior lineman Jason Cross. “Mentally we’ve been making a lot of mistakes. Kids got sick, coach went to the hospital.

“Second half we came out and played like we can play.”

It took a scoreless first half to put a scare into Hampden. The Broncos reduced the costly penalties that had plagued them early, and relied on huge special teams plays and two John Higgins touchdowns to post a 19-0 victory at the Weatherbee Complex field.

After a series of mishaps in the first half, Hampden forced a 3-and-out in MDI’s first drive of the third quarter. The Trojans tried to get off a punt, but it was blocked by Higgins and picked up by Brad Simms, who ran it down to the MDI 7-yard line. Two plays later, Higgins was in the end zone for a 6-0 lead.

“We knew we had a drive going and we needed to win the game,” said senior Travis Caron, who starts on the line with Cross.

Things would click again for the Broncos. Although MDI blocked the extra-point attempt, Hampden’s Josh Whinery recovered an on-side kickoff, setting up Jeremy Tyler’s 40-yard touchdown run.

The Broncos appeared to have stalled in the fourth quarter, but after a timeout Hampden executed a fake punt as Kapler ran the ball from the MDI 39 to the 12. Higgins bulled five yards into the end zone on fourth-and-3.

MDI’s defense was nearly as tough – Tyler’s touchdown run was the longest run of the game as the Trojans limited the Broncos to short gains.

That meant six Hampden ballcarriers combined for 200 yards on the ground.

“They must have watched a lot of film on us because they knew what we were going to do,” Higgins said. “We made some adjustments and knew how we were going to block it.”

Hampden was penalized four times for 50 yards in the first quarter and had a 28-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Richardson to Trainor Kapler called back because of a holding penalty.

“Our first half was all mental mistakes,” Higgins said.

It seemed as if nothing went right for Hampden in the first half. The Broncos fumbled on their opening drive, got the ball when Anthony Nason intercepted a pass, but had the touchdown called back on their second drive.

Late in the second quarter Richardson, who was throwing on fourth-and-7 from the MDI 7, had a pass tipped and picked up by MDI’s Brandon Chase. The Trojans got the ball back with less than 10 seconds, but Richardson was sacked as the half ended.

“They’re a pretty high-powered offense and defensively I thought our kids played great,” MDI coach Mark Shields said. “We thought Kapler was the go-to guy and we thought if we could stop him we’d have a shot, and we kept him in check.”

Defense bailed out Hampden early as MDI backs Matt Joy and John Lewis were held to 27 yards of offense in the first half. The pair finished with a combined 50 yards on 30 carries.

“We had a hard time moving the ball and they’re fast, they were blitzing, and we had a hard time picking up some of those stunts,” Shields said.

BRONCOS 19, TROJANS 0

MDI (0-7) 0 0 0 0 ? 0

Hampden (4-2) 0 0 13 6 ? 19

H ? Higgins 6 run (kick blocked)

H ? Tyler 40 run (Tyler kick)

H ? Higgins 5 run (kick blocked)

MDI Hampden

First downs 3 9

Rushing att.-yards 34-30 45-200

Passing comp.-att. 0-2 1-6

Passing yards 0 18

Total yards 30 218

Punts-avg. 5-40.8 1-51

Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-1

Intercepted by 1 2

Penalties-yards 3-15 6-60

Rushing

MDI: Joy 18-26, J. Lewis 12-24, Beaudoin 4-(-20); Hampden: Tyler 6-57, Kapler 11-44, Higgins 13-41, Simms 5-28, Preston 3-17, Richardson 7-13

Passing

MDI: Beaudoin 0-2-1-0; Hampden: Richardson 1-6-2-18

Receiving

MDI: none; Hampden: Pease 1-18

A?500 (est.)